Entwined Destiny AKA Final Fantasy VII and VIII
by Riku54-Vincent's Demon
Summary: 7&8. Squall meets AVALANCH and believes that the group is either drunk or mad, but when he comes facetoface with the nightmare that was thougth to be dead, he is forced to believe them. Now he has to help them defeat Sephiroth. Its better than it sounds!
1. Chapter 1

Hope you gusy like this one too! I'm not as confused with everything now!

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FINAL FANTASY VII-VIII

By Riku54

Part 1-Chapter 1

Cloud sat down in a chair, his hand over his head. He didn't feel very good, in fact, he felt very sick and weak. That was only to be expected…He had no idea where he was, why he was there, or even how he had gotten there. He was in a building, someone standing beside him, looking at him and saying something that Cloud didn't understand. It was slurred, either that, he was only half-conscious. His Mako blue eyes were half closed and he was staring at the floor. Cloud couldn't think straight, and he didn't know why either.

"Hello? Are you alright?" a female voice asked him gently. Cloud looked up, his glazed eyes blinking. His vision was blurring from the headache he had and he couldn't tell if he knew the woman or not. He groaned in pain as he tried to focus his eyes on her, but his head dropped again. Cloud wanted the pain to go away, but he knew it wouldn't. "Hmm…let's see now, where's the aspirin?"

Cloud knew that the woman had moved away from him and was looking for something. She was making an awful lot of noise as if she were sorting through all sorts of pills. When she came back, Cloud heard her say, "Here, swallow these." She dropped some pills into his hand and Cloud put them into his mouth and swallowed without water or anything.

Then, he asked her slowly, "Where's Tifa?" Tifa was his best friend that he grew up with in Nibelheim, but Cloud had left to join SOLDIER, but he had never became a first-class SOLDIER like his friend, Zack. Cloud didn't know where Zack had gone after Cloud had successfully defeated Sephiroth by throwing him into a pool of Mako. Then, five years ago, Cloud and Zack had been taken as test subjects of Hojo's, a mad scientist who created the super SOLDIER, Sephiroth. There, Cloud had been injected with Mako and JENOVA Cells, along with Zack, but both of them had escaped. That was when Zack had vanished.

"I don't know, is she a friend of yours?" the woman asked Cloud. Cloud only nodded, wanting to sleep, but he worried for Tifa. Wherever she was, he wanted to know. He may not speak to her much, or even reply to her messages on his cell phone, but he did worry about her.

Before Cloud knew it, he was drifting off into a deep sleep that was troubled with the images of where he spent most of his time at: In Aeris's church. Aeris was the last remaining Cetra who was also a flower girl. She had been Cloud's best friend and Zack's girlfriend. She had died trying to summon Holy, the only thing that could stop Meteor. Sephiroth had stabbed her in the back, which had killed her almost instantly.

&&&

Squall sat in the cafeteria, eating breakfast. He had just got back from the infirmary. He had found a kid outside that looked like had needed some help. He had been stumbling around outside where all the monsters were, clutching his head as if he were in pain. Squall didn't ask the guy anything as he brought him into Balamb Garden and towards the infirmary. The nurse there had left and had been replaced by a new one, Nurse Janie.

Now as Squall was finishing his breakfast, he thought '_I hope I never turn out like that guy, he looked as sorry as I'll get out.'_ After he finished he eating, Squall left, only to run into Zell, one of his friends. "Yo Squall! Have you seen Selphie anywhere?"

Squall shook his head. He didn't ever talk much to anyone, not even friends. He walked on past Zell, not waiting for a reply, but Zell wouldn't have that, "Squall! Will you help me look for her? I gotta ask her somethin'!"

"Did you try outside near the Front Gate? I think I saw her out there." Squall finally responded and noticed that Zell was leaving. At least he was gone now…All at once Squall heard loud footsteps behind him and heard angry voices, "What? Red! Are you sure we're no where near Midgar? Damn!"

"Barret, calm down, we'll just ask this guy over here." came a calm voice. Squall blinked, realizing that they were talking about him and spun around. He didn't expect to see a red cat with flame on the end of it's tail. The red cat was looking up at a dark-toned man who had a gun for an arm. He looked rather angry.

"Hey, kid, where are we?" the cat asked.

Squall certainly didn't expect the cat to talk, and blinked in shock. But he responded, trying to cover that emotion up, "In Balamb Garden."

"And _where_ is that?" the dark-toned man asked.

"Drop that, Barret, we have more important matters to worry about! We don't know where Cloud and Tifa are! Much less Marlene and Denzel!"

"Wha'? You lost Marlene?" Barret roared at the cat. Squall could only stare at them.

"Excuse me, Barret, but I was not the one watching her, that was Tifa, remember? And we have to find Cloud and Tifa before anything else!" the cat, whose name was Red, turned to Squall and looked at him with unblinking eyes, "Sir, have you seen a man about twenty-three, spiky blonde hair, has Mako blue eyes? He's an ex-SOLDIER."

"Don't tell him that! That's none of da' guys business!" Barret snapped.

"Hush. Let him speak."

Squall had no idea what Mako was, nor did he understand why these guys didn't want him knowing about this guy who was an ex-SOLDIER. If they didn't want him to know, did that make the guy an enemy? Squall didn't know, but he did know that he had to say something. He eyed the gun on Barret's arm before replying, "I think the guy I found fits your description, he's in the infirmary."

"And where is that?" Barret asked. Clearly they were not from around here, and Squall remembered hearing them say the word 'Midgar'. Where that was, he didn't know.

"Follow me." Squall ordered and turned around and began leading the red and black cat along with Barret towards the infirmary. He entered the infirmary looking around and saw that Nurse Janie was bent over the blonde haired kid who looked as if he were asleep.

Nurse Janie looked up at the three who had just entered the room. "Squall, you know pets aren't aloud in the Garden!"

Red looked awfully offended by being called a 'pet' and responded, "I beg to differ, ma'am but I am not a pet!"

"Okay, Red, so we found Cloud and he's sleepin' on the job! Damn!" Barret suddenly swore, looking around. "Tifa's not in here and neither is Marlene!"

"Please be quiet, he's in a great deal of pain." Nurse Janie snapped at Barret.

Barret looked confused for a moment and then asked, "Why?"

"Do you think I know?" Nurse Janie snapped.

"Well you should. You are a nurse…" Squall muttered, but even though he said this, he knew something was wrong with the man. He looked down at Cloud who wore a calm expression on his face, but suddenly it twisted into unbearable sadness and then rage. "Aeris…Sephiroth…"

"Who?" Squall asked, confused greatly, but no one paid him any heed, like he cared.

"Spike, wake up, Spike!" Barret growled, shaking Cloud. Red and Barret knew that Cloud was dreaming about when Aeris had died, and neither of them wanted to coop with Cloud sulking around.

&&&

Cloud was subconscious of someone shaking him. In his mind, he saw Sephiroth glaring at him, blood dripping from his sword. It was Aeris's blood. There was a smirk on his face as he stepped towards Cloud, his Mako green eyes flashing. Cloud took a step back, but in that instant, his mind flashed back to the time when Sephiroth had stabbed him through the chest, blood splashing everywhere, but Cloud didn't feel anything. And then he knew. It was a dream…

Cloud's eyes snapped open, his breathing becoming fast and his heart was pounding. His head burned fiercely and his hand flung open to his, his eyes shutting as he caught sight of Barret, Red, some guy, and a woman that had to be the nurse. "Ugh…" he groaned, moving his hand away, a wave of pain flashing through his body. He forced himself to look up at Barret and Red. "Have you guys…seen Tifa?" Cloud asked weakly, his voice low and cracked with pain.

The aspirin that he had taken had dulled it slightly, but it still hurt like hell. When he didn't get a response from anyone, he looked at them with narrowed eyes and forced himself to stand. The nurse was going to stop him, but within seconds, Cloud was on his feet. He took a step and nearly stumbled, but he managed. "We're going to find Tifa." he told them determinedly.

He passed Barret and Red and came to the man with the black leather jacket and brown hair. "Thanks for helping me…" Cloud said before he stumbled on past him. His eyes were still half-closed in pain and his body movements were slurred and unstable.

"You're not going anywhere in your condition." the man said, grabbing Cloud by his arm. He drug Cloud backwards, but Cloud fought back. Barret and Red made no move to stop the man from pushing Cloud back down to where he had been sitting. They knew Cloud was weak, but they couldn't stop their leader.

"Squall, don't be so rough! His temperature is very high and he is sick." Nurse Janie growled the man. Squall was silent and Nurse Janie sighed, but didn't say anything.

"We'll go look for Tifa, Cloud, and Marlene." Red told him and then motioned for Barret to follow him as they left Cloud there with the nurse and Squall.

"Who's Sephiroth?" Squall suddenly asked Cloud.

Cloud blinked in shock and looked up at Squall. "You don't know who Sephiroth is?"

Squall shook his head, "No, the name is not familiar to me."


	2. Chapter 2

Well I hope you guys like it so far! Oh and I have no idea if you _have_ to put a disclaimer, but I guessI will...I never do though...

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII or VIII

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Chapter Two

Cloud felt great confusion and shock over the pain in his head. How could Squall not know who Sephiroth was? He didn't know, but he guessed it would hurt to tell Squall. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as images filled his mind. Cloud saw flashes of Sephiroth as he threw himself into the Mako pool, he saw Sephiroth's face full of shock when Cloud had slung him into a steel wall. He took another deep breath and opened his Mako blue eyes. "Sephiroth, he is the son of Lucrecia and Vincent. Sephiroth wasn't always the insane murderer he is now. He was injected with JENOVA Cells before he was born and then had Mako injected into him and everything. Well he was raised in Shin-Ra headquarters as he super SOLDIER. He became the General of the first class SOLDIERS. And friend of mine, Zack, was also a first class SOLDIER. Well they were going to Nibelheim and apparently, Sephiroth found something."

"It was a report that told him everything. Because he was raised in Shin-Ra headquarters and he never knew his real mother, Sephiroth believed that JENOVA was his real mother. So when he read the report that JENOVA was supposedly a Cetra, he believed, being JENOVA's only son, that he too, was a Cetra. He thinks that he is ruler to the planet and that every human is a traitor to the planet. But now Sephiroth is dead." Cloud finished, thinking he hadn't left anything out.

"Oh," Squall said, nodding, "what happened to your friend Zack? And…what's Mako?"

Cloud blinked, okay, either this person was stupid, or Cloud most certainly was not on his planet. This guy didn't look stupid, but how could Cloud be on another planet? Was that even possible? How had he gotten there? Cloud suddenly shook his head and forced himself to respond to Squall as if nothing was wrong, "Zack, I don't know where he is. Personally, I think he's dead. And as for the Mako, it's something that is in the Lifestream."

Squall nodded again and asked another question, "What's a SOLDIER?"

Cloud sighed heavily. His headache had dulled greatly because the aspirin was working at its heights at the moment. Cloud was positive that it he hadn't had medicine in him, he'd have an even worse headache. "A SOLDIER is what protected Shin-Ra. Every SOLDIER was injected Mako, well most of them at least, not all of them. The first class SOLDIERS were the best and strongest. It's hard to get to first class, but if you did, that meant you were skilled, very skilled."

Cloud stopped right there as Squall asked one more question, "One of your friends, they said you were an ex-SOLDIER, were you a first class?"

Cloud blinked and shook his head, sighing, "No, I wasn't as skilled as Zack. Zack helped me escape from Hojo. He helped a lot of people. He didn't like to kill or see people hurt. Me, I always kept to myself and killed what I had to. If was life or death for me, in my opinion." Cloud responded.

He knew Squall would have asked something else if it hadn't been for the fact that Barret and Red came back. "Cloud!" an anxious voice filled the room. Cloud turned his head to see a black hair woman rushing towards him. They had found Tifa. She stopped in front of him and asked suddenly, "Have you seen Marlene anywhere?"

Cloud sighed heavily at the question, "No." _People ask too many questions. Maybe I should stop answering them all…_

"Spiky, you feelin' better? Well good! Now get off your sorry ass so we can go find Marlene!" Barret growled, not waiting for an answer from Cloud. Cloud just blinked and stayed put. He knew that he should go find Marlene, but now that he thought about it, questions swarmed within his mind.

Where was he? What was his purpose for being here? Where_ is_ here? Why didn't these people know anything about Sephiroth? Could this truly be another planet? _But…that might make it so…so that Marlene was never taken here! No, she was with Tifa, she had to have been taken too, right?_ Cloud didn't voice his troubled thoughts because he knew that Barret would become upset about Marlene.

Barret, who had turned around and was about to leave, twisted his head to face them. Everyone but Cloud gave him a glare. Cloud was looking at him, but he wasn't really seeing things. He looked as if he were in deep thought. "Heh-heh, you look like Squall does when ever he's thinking!" A cheerful voice filled the room and Cloud was flung out of his thoughts as he saw a young woman with brown hair walking in. There was a kind smile on her face. She turned to Squall, "Rinoa was looking for you, Squall, she was in the Cafeteria last time I checked."

"Well I'm right here now." Another woman's voice floated into the room. She stepped in, wearing light blue clothing. Her silky, black hair reached her shoulders and she had warm brown eyes. She was smiling as she spoke, "You're always hiding, Squall!"

"I'm not hiding! I was going to my dorm when these two," Squall pointed at Red and Barret, "asked me if I'd seen him." Squall then pointed at Cloud and then he sighed, turning back to Rinoa, but he didn't say anything else.

"Oh, I see. Who are you guys anyway?" Rinoa asked, looking at Cloud, then Red and Barret. Then she glanced at Tifa, "Someone from Balamb? Or Dollet? Or some place else?"

"Some place else." Tifa responded. She would have told them that she was from Nibelheim, but Cloud interjected, "Where are we? You guys…don't know who Sephiroth is, you don't know what ShinRa is, you don't know what Mako is…why?" Tifa instantly knew that Cloud was troubled, and she could tell that his headache was returning. _Why is he in such pain anyway?_

"What? Are you sure you're okay? You didn't hit your head or something? That would explain the headache." Nurse Janie asked him, laying a hand on Cloud's shoulder.

Cloud only shrugged it off and growled, "I didn't hit my head. I'm not crazy either. We're no where near Midgar…we're not even on the Planet anymore, are we?" Cloud's temper was rising from everyone misunderstanding. His own confusion wasn't helping. He had no idea why his head was hurting as bad as it did and why everyone else was fine, Cloud didn't know…he just didn't know…

Apparently Cloud had voiced everyone's fears because Tifa spoke up, "I've been wondering that too…I asked someone outside here if they knew where Nibelheim was and they said they'd never heard of it. Then I asked about Midgar and ShinRa and every other place I could think of. They only told me that I was crazy."

"But how do you suppose we got here? That's not possible, is it?" Red asked.

"Maybe…we're all just dreaming…?" Cloud said quietly, not raising his head. He was now looking at his hands, his eyes glazed and distant.

"But you wouldn't be able to feel the pain, Cloud." Tifa pointed out. Cloud nodded and sighed, closing his eyes. How had they gotten here?

&&&

Squall didn't know what to say. At the moment, when Cloud had said that they may not be on their planet anymore, Squall believed that they were all crazy. But…maybe they were aliens or they could be drunk…Squall wasn't sure if he should believe them. The story about Sephiroth sounded way to far-fetched for him. Who the hell could be that powerful? No one. That was the answer and that only made Squall believe even more that all of these guys were crazy and drunk too much some where. _After all, headaches are a side effect of too much alcohol, and Cloud was stumbling around a lot. But what about he other three? They seem just fine. Maybe…maybe they are crazy._ Squall thought, looking at Tifa. She didn't seem crazy nor the type to drink. Barret, Barret though, he seemed as if he could drink a lot and at the first glance, Squall had thought this man was crazy. Then came Red.

Red was a cat…or at least Squall thought he was. There was fire on the end of his tail and he had tattoos on his dark red fur. His eyes were red and the strangest thing was, was that he could talk. Squall decided that Red had to be a monster, but how could he talk? _I guess some monsters are actually smart…but strange._

Squall looked over at Rinoa and stood up. Maybe he should tell her about everything so she wouldn't blurt out something…and Selphie too. He walked over to Rinoa and Selphie and motioned for them to follow him outside the Infirmary. Once they were out of earshot and Squall had shut the door, he spoke.

"These guys, I think…I think they're crazy. The blonde one, Cloud, he seems drunk." Squall blurted out.

Rinoa and Selphie looked at him and then nodded, "Yeah, I know what you mean. I have no idea what they're talking about, and it's not possible that there's another planet out there with human life forms on it, right?" Rinoa asked, her confusion and doubt plain.

"Yeah, that's not possible. These people are just a little drunk." Selphie agreed.

"All right then, I guess we just need to play along with whatever they say, at least until they come to their senses, agreed?" Squall questioned.

"Agreed, but you have to be more social to them, it might help." Rinoa comfirmed.

Squall nodded reluctantly, "I'll try…"

"Okay then, let's go back in!" Selphie was smiling as brightly as ever as she wheeled around and went back into the Infirmary.

&&&

"Back to the subject about Marlene. We have to find her, she's too young to be running around here by herself." Barret told his friends. Everyone knew that Barret didn't want to see Marlene in trouble. No one wanted that.

Cloud nodded and stood up, looking around the room at everyone. "Okay then, now we can go look for Marlene, right Barret? And when I say 'we' I mean all of us!" Cloud's eyes flashed. He was _not _going to stay in here all day!

Tifa looked at him, "Cloud…" But she didn't get to say anything else as Barret nodded, "Yeah, now let's get goin'!" They started for the door just as Selphie, Squall, and Rinoa returned.

"Where are you all going?" Rinoa asked.

"To find Marlene? Have you seen her? Youngest person here, brown hair-" Barret didn't finish as Rinoa intervened, "No, but we can help you look for her, if you want." Rinoa offered.

"Would you? Thanks!" Tifa said quickly. "I guess we need to split up in teams, and since none of us no this place, we can go with someone who does."

"Fine, I can take Cloud and the cat with me." Squall responded, his voice sounding serious, yet at the same time annoyed.

"What's up with him?" Tifa muttered under her breath.

"Oh, don't mind him, he's always like that. You can go with me if you like…and I guess the big guy can go with Selphie." Rinoa explained, waving Squall off and sounding carefree.

"Hey the big guy's got a name! It's Barret!" Barret growled.

"And I am Red, Red XIII, not 'cat'!" Red snapped.

"Oh, leave him be. He's just like that. Well, let's get going." Rinoa said and turned with Tifa following her, she left. Selphie went next and Barret.

"Don't give her a hard time, Barret," Red warned, "or else you'll have us to talk too!"

"Ah quit that, I ain't gonna get mad at her!" Barret growled.

Cloud just shook his head. He walked over to Squall, Red following at his side. Squall turned away from him and walked out the door. Cloud didn't speak as he followed silently. From the lack of conversation, his mind began to fill with thoughts. He noticed how Squall had suddenly taken a turn and was now acting as if something was wrong. He didn't know what, nor did he care. If they knew where Marlene was, Cloud believed that one of them would have told him or at least Barret or Tifa. Squall didn't seem to be one to not trust, but he still didn't seem like an ally. But of course…he was just one who kept to himself.

Cloud turned down the hallway, following Squall until they came upon an elevator. "We'll check the upper levels first." Squall said as he entered the elevator.

Cloud didn't respond as the elevator went up to the second floor. When it opened, Cloud took a quick glance around and didn't see Marlene anywhere. Red looked up and Cloud and said, "I do not believe she is on this level, but there are so many scents, it is hard to tell."

Cloud nodded as Squall led them to a door. "Alright," Squall said, turning around, "this is a classroom. I have no idea if they're having classes because I don't take them anymore because I'm a SeeD now. But if they are, be quiet."

Squall opened the door and stepped inside, looking around. Cloud grew even more confused. Was this a school of some sort. "And what the hell is a SeeD?" Cloud whispered to himself.

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If you're a Vincent fan, he's coming up in the next chpter! I've already got most of the third chapter typed so I'll put it up maybe tommorow night-I have other fanficsI need to be working on, so I'll just add chappie 3 later tommorow, I would put it up tonight, but I'm tired. It's 2:12 AM over here and I want to go to sleep! 


	3. Chapter 3

Yay! I finsihed this chapter at last! Okay, well I hope you guys enjoy it! I'll upate probably sometime next week because I am going on vacation for a week-but don't worry! I will have a nice long chapter for you all, either that, serveral little chapters liek these. If youw ant them longer, just tell me! This chappie is for Vincent fans! He is an offical main character now!

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII-VIII-is thsi required? I'm sueing cause this is wasting my precious relaxing time! Oh well...

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Chapter Three

Vincent stood on a grassy plain, his red eyes flashing with anger. His red, ripped cape swirled with the wind as he walked across the plain. He knew what had happened to him was no mistake. Vincent wasn't sure how, but he _knew _that he was meant to be here. One moment, he had been walking through the Edge, heading towards Seventh Heaven to speak with Cloud, the next, he found himself walking on a grassy plain.

Vincent spotted a town, or what looked like one, not far off. He didn't really want to go there, but he knew he had too. Vincent could sense that he was no where near Midgar, the Edge, or any other place. He walked towards it, his senses alert for monsters or other dangers. His gun was in his right arm. His left arm was a made of metal. It had been cut off by Hojo and then replaced by this metal one. Vincent hated the memory. He hated it just as much as he hated Hojo, who was dead.

Vincent had been one of Hojo's 'experiments'. Hojo had done something to him that made him ageless and now he was stuck at age twenty-seven. He had been shot in the heart by Hojo and had lived. Vincent couldn't really die either. His fingers clenched his gun tighter at the memory as he neared the strange town.

He saw a sign that read 'Balamb Garden'. Vincent blinked, he's never heard of it before, but he shrugged it off and walked in. There were a lot of things he'd never heard of. He saw many young people around the ages of fifteen and nineteen walking around and chatting. They all looked so happy and peaceful. At least they were happy and not in the least confused or lost, or angry…or demon possessed. That was how Vincent referred to himself.

He looked around, passing a gate. The man gave him a puzzled look and was about to speak, when Vincent's red eyes flashed again and he raised his gun, pointing it at the man. "Where am I?" he demanded.

"B-Balamb Garden. Please don't shoot me!" the man gasped, holding up his ands in defense.

Vincent lowered his gun, speaking in a harsh, "I'm not going to shoot you, but tell me, where the hell _is_ Balamb Garden? In what country?"

"The country of Balamb sir!" the man quickly replied!

Vincent shook his head, answers only led to questions so he just walked past the man without another word, his cape flowing behind him. He walked up towards a large building. All at once, he heard a loud voice calling his name, "Vincent!"

Vincent whirled around to see a familiar face rushing towards him. The girl wrapped her arms around him, a joyful look on her face. "Marlene? What are doing here?" Vincent asked the brown haired girl.

Marlene looked up at him and her joyful expression vanished as she backed away from Vincent, "Looking for Tifa…I can't find her anywhere. Have you seen them?" Hope rose within the girl's voice and Vincent wished that he could have said 'yes' to Marlene, but up until then, he didn't even know Tifa was around this place.

"Sorry, but no, Marlene. I haven't seen anyone I know around here. How long have you been on your own?"

"Um…I don't know, I don't have a watch." Marlene admitted.

Vincent nodded and pushed back part of his red cape. He was going to get his phone he had just bought and when he reached into his pocket, he swore loudly. "Damn! Sorry, Marlene, I think I lost my phone somewhere…Well, I guess we'll just have to hunt Tifa down on our own."

Vincent looked around him, observing everyone. A lot of people gave him strange looks and eyed his metal arm. Vincent noticed this and hid it within his red cape, searching the crowd for Tifa. She wasn't there. He nodded and then looked at Marlene, "Here, follow me, we'll find her."

He entered the building and saw a familiar looking cat walking into an elevator with a familiar person and a strange. "Okay, Marlene, I didn't find Tifa, but I think I found Cloud and Red. Come on."

Vincent walked swiftly towards the elevator, putting his gun into its holster. He waited for the elevator to come back down, and when it did, he stepped inside.

&&&

"Squall! You know animals are _not_ permitted into the Garden!" Quists snapped as she noticed the red cat-like lion walking into the room.

"Huh? What? You think this is my cat? No! This is Cloud's cat!" Squall objected.

"I am not something to be owned!" Red snapped, glancing at everyone in the classroom. They were staring at Squall, Cloud and him. A few whispering to each other. He rolled his red eyes as he walked further into the classroom.

"It talks!" Quists gasped.

"Um…Red is a guy." Cloud responded dully, blinking. This was like a school?

"Okay! Back to the reason why we came in here! Have any of you seen a little girl that is way too young to be here, browned hair, her name is Marlene?" Squall asked, looking at everyone. No one responded at first, but then, gradually, every single person shook their heads 'no'.

Cloud sighed and was about to walk out when he heard a loud voice, "Cloud!" Cloud spun around to see Marlene running at him. He noticed a man standing in the doorway, a red cape flowing behind him. His hair was black and his piercing red eyes bore down on Cloud.

"Marlene! Vincent, what are you doing here?" Cloud asked, confusion showing in his voice.

&&&

Sephiroth blinked from where he was sitting. Why the hell he was in a clinic office, he didn't know. He stood up, his silver hair falling in front of his face as he looked around. This place was too…calm. Maybe…_Maybe I should cause some trouble…give them something to fear._ Sephiroth grinned at the idea. He liked to cause trouble and he _loved_ to kill!

His hand rested on his Masamune's hilt. He drew it just as a young woman came over to him, "Sir, do you have an appointment?"

Sephiroth smirked at her and with ease, he drew his blade and sliced it through the woman's body. She gave him a look of terror as she was cut in half, and killed instantly. The people around Sephiroth gave him looks of pure horror and rushed towards the door. One man, however, bravely took out a gun and aimed it at Sephiroth's chest. He couldn't help but stab the man in the chest and making him die a slow and painful death. How pathetically easy these humans were to kill! What joy he found when their faces paled with horror and pain slid through their features as he killed them.

He walked out of the office and into the street, sheathing his silver sword. He knew, somehow, that Cloud, the failed Jenova experiment was near by, and one day, Sephiroth would kill Cloud…one day…

&&&

Vincent crossed his arms, his metal arm's claws drumming his other arm's muscle. His red eyes flashed at all the looks he was receiving. He did not like people to look at his metal arm, for he knew, that they must think of him as some…abomination. He tried his best to ignore the whispers he could hear, and focused only on Cloud, Marlene, and the brown-haired kid. Red, who was off to the side, was now sitting down, looking relieved. Vincent knew that they had been searching for Marlene, no doubt.

"I don't know what I am doing here. I was going to ask you the same question. And who, Cloud, is this?" Vincent asked, pointing one gloved finger at Squall.

Squall looked at Vincent's red eyes and shuttered, looking away. Vincent showed no emotion to Squall's fear as Cloud responded, "This is Squall. He helped me when I was sick."

"You still are sick; you shouldn't be out here." Red pointed out as a woman came forward. She bore a very stern expression on her face and his eyes were like blue fire.

"Squall, I do not know why you have chosen this time to interrupt my class, but get out at once. Else I will have to tell Headmaster Cid about this!" Quists snapped.

Squall blinked and nodded. Vincent just turned around, his red cape flowing behind him as he left the classroom. He was relieved to be away from all the stares he had received. Vincent leaned against one of the steel walls inside the Garden, waiting for Cloud. When they came out, he stood up straight and the confronted Squall, "Who are you, and where are we? And you'd better not respond 'Balamb Garden' or 'the country of Balamb'!"

Squall opened his mouth to reply and took a step back from Vincent. Cloud quickly intervened with Vincent, "Calm down, Vincent. This is Squall, he was helping me look for Marlene, but none of us know why wee are here. We do know, however, that we are not on our own planet."

Vincent blinked, "So we're nowhere near home? I guessed that much. Okay then, if no one has answers for that, then tell me, Squall, what the hell is this place? A school?"

Squall spoke, "You mean you don't know what a Garden is? Well…this isn't a school really, it's for people who want to become SeeDs. A SeeD is a special service person who travels all around the world. Well I just became a SeeD a few days ago and I haven't gone very many places yet. But this place basically teaches you how to fight and stuff like that."

Vincent didn't understand everything, but he didn't ask anything else, instead he turned to face Cloud, "Where's Tifa? Who else is here?" He always liked to be up-to-date with things.

"Tifa is with Rinoa, and Barret is here too. If there is anyone else, I haven't happened across them yet." Cloud responded.

Vincent nodded and turned around and was walking towards the elevator when a dark-tanned man and a girl with silver hair came rushing by. They skidded to a stop beside Squall and the man asked, "Yo Squall! Have you seen Seifer anywhere, man? We can't find him anywhere!"

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Well, I hope I got things right woth Vincent! I dunno if you gusy know yet, but I've never played Final Fantasy VII (sniffles) but I want too. And I'm only on disc 2 of Final Fantasy VIII... 


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys! I've finally got a chance to update!1 Yay! I'm putting up Chapter five also-I'm on Chapter Ten, but I can't give that to you guys yet! Srry!

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FINAL FANTASY VII-VIII

Chapter Four

Yuffie was listening in on the guy with the red cape, brown-haired guy with a dull expression on his face, and Cloud's conversation. She noticed that two other people had come up and heard them shout at the brown-haired guy whose name was Squall. "Who the hell is Seifer?" Yuffie asked herself under her breath as she stood at the end of the hallway. It was a good thing Cloud wasn't very good at spotting things, but the crimsoned-eyed guy might. Just as Yuffie was about to take a step closer, she noticed a red cat…or was it a dog?

Yuffie gulped, this dog…or cat might have rabies! She backed away as she heard Squall reply, "No…" This guy didn't speak much, did he?

She disappeared around the corner…only to bump into a black-haired woman that had a troubled look on her face. She was wearing blue and there was another black-haired woman behind her. "Yuffie!" A familiar voice filled Yuffie's ears and she gulped as she realized who the other woman was. It was Tifa!

"Um…hi Tifa…long time no see?" Yuffie asked, hoping that Tifa still hadn't realized that she had stolen a couple of her materia a few weeks ago.

"Alright, Yuffie, where's my materia!" Tifa snapped. Yuffie's heart sank. Uh-oh…and the worst thing was…was that Yuffie had left Tifa's materia, but she only smiled and said rather uncharacteristically, "Oh, ya know me, Tifa. Well I gotta be goin'!"

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Squall could care less if Seifer was missing. What was it to him? He hated Seifer. And Seifer hated him, so he felt rather unusually happy knowing that Seifer was no where to be seen. He still remembered the incident when they had to go into battle and Seifer had disobeyed orders. Squall, Zell, and Seifer had completed their mission, yes, but they were not to disobey orders like that again. Then, later on, he had become a SeeD at last, that was when he had met Rinoa, who had, at one time, been Seifer's girlfriend.

He then pushed past Raijin and Fujin, Seifer's lackeys. He had helped Cloud find Marlene, and now everything was settled. Except for the fact that now that Squall thought about it, maybe these people did come from some place else. This Vincent guy, he looked so haunting and terrifying, and getting drunk could not turn your eyes a blood red color. Was he demon possessed?

Squall shook his head, why should he care about these people? He'd never cared for anyone else before, maybe he was just feeling sorry for everyone. But then there came the girl. She was not drunk and she seemed to know them. He was so confused. "Argh…" he groaned to himself, maybe these people weren't drunk at all and maybe this Sephiroth guy, maybe he was real. Who knew? But Cloud had never mentioned Vincent, so what about him? Vincent wasn't crazy, there was no way he could be crazy…but his metal arm sent shivers down Squall's spine. Maybe he was just going crazy and this was all a dream…_Okay, scratch that, remember Squall? You're supposed to be playing along with them!_

Squall noticed that everyone except Raijin and Fujin. Cloud and Vincent were speaking quietly, while Marlene was looking anxiously around for Tifa.

&&&

Cloud could feel the pain in his head steadily growing, but he tried to push it out of his consciousness as he spoke with Vincent. Vincent looked expressionless and obvious to Cloud's pain, but Cloud knew that Vincent saw it, Vincent saw and sensed many things, and maybe that had to do with the fact that Vincent wasn't entirely human, but he wasn't inhuman at the same time…he was in-between.

"Where were you when you were still back in the Edge?" Vincent asked him quietly, maybe there was some link as to why everyone was where they were. He needed answers, Vincent didn't like to be so confused all the time.

"I really don't remember. My mind wants to say Aeris's church, but that can't be right. Because another part of me says that I was at the Seventh Heaven…and then…that I was in the ruins of Midgar…I just…don't know." Cloud responded hesitantly. His voice was quiet and unsure, dripping with utter confusion.

Vincent didn't know what to say, so he remained silent. Until, finally, the picture of a boy flashed into his mind, "What happened to Denzel, is he here too?"

"Denzel?" Cloud looked at Vincent at the name. Vincent saw the surprise in Cloud's features as he said, "I don't know where he is! The last time I saw him, he was with Marlene." Vincent nodded solemnly, another person was missing now…That meant he would have to 'assist' them in searching for any other missing person, but he would not join them. Vincent would rather be left on his own, he didn't want the help of others.

Cloud sighed and turned to look up at Marlene, he called out, "Marlene, was Denzel with you?"

Marlene turned her head, looking at Cloud. Her face suddenly went blank as she shook her head. Then, slowly, her features changed to worry as she realized no one knew where Denzel was. "Is he okay, Cloud?" Marlene asked.

Just as Cloud was about to respond to her question, Tifa and Rinoa appeared. Tifa had a certain ninja by the neck collar, dragging her along. Tifa looked surprised to see Vincent with them, but her face lit up at the sight of Marlene. She released the struggling Yuffie and wrapped her arms around Marlene. "They found you!"

Cloud stood nearby, glancing at Vincent who was looking at Yuffie with a stern eye. He knew very well that this ninja loved to steal others materia, and if you weren't careful, you'd lose yours in an instant. Cloud wondered when Tifa had bumped into Yuffie, but shrugged it off as he looked at Rinoa and then Squall.

Just as he was about to suggest they go look for Barret and Selphie, Cloud felt a wave of pain surge through his whole body. He flinched at the pain, a frown showing on his face. He tried to hide the pain that he was in by turning to look away from everyone, waiting for it to pass. It didn't though, and when Tifa told them that they should find the others, Cloud nearly stumbled as he moved. The energy was slowly being sapped from his body and the pain grew with every step he took.

He shut his eyes for an instant, and when he opened them, he felt the burning gaze of Vincent on him. Cloud couldn't help but look at his friend and saw that Vincent was looking at him, his crimson eyes emotionless. Cloud blinked, and looked away, his eyes beginning to water from the pain in his head. Vincent suddenly asked, "What's wrong, Cloud?"

"Headache," Cloud responded, surprised at how weak his voice was. He hadn't thought he had lost that much energy just from a headache…

Vincent only nodded and turned away, but every once and a while, he would glance at Cloud through he corner of his eyes. Tifa was the next to notice Cloud's occasional flinches from the pain in his head and she knew instantly what was up. "Do you need more medicine?" Tifa asked.

Cloud shook his head, but in truth, he really did need some. He didn't want his friends to worry, they already had enough on their hands. And at the moment, it was rather hard to find Barret and Selphie.

&&&

Squall led them down to the gates, looking around there. Since he knew what Barret looked like, he helped them, but stayed silent a lot. It was rather dull, really, just looking through the many people for two people in particular.

&&&

It was Vincent who spotted Barret and Selphie first. He didn't know Selphie, so he only pointed out Barret. Barret was walking around a could of hundred yards off, looking around. When they spotted Barret, everyone ran up to him in a rush, knowing that Barret would be glad to see Marlene.

"Marlene!" Barret said, looking down at the girl. "So, I see you found her. Where were ya Marlene? You were supposed to stick with Tifa!"

Marlene blinked and smiled at Barret weakly before responding, "We got separated. But Vincent found me!"

Barret looked up and saw Vincent standing there. Vincent was looking at Barret, but he said nothing, "Oh uh, thanks Vincent." Vincent still didn't say anything, instead, he just nodded.

&&&

Meanwhile Sephiroth was in Balamb, watching as people scurried away from him. He was thinking maybe he could let this place go up in flames like he had Nimbelheim. That would be fun, and it would defiantly cause some trouble. Just as he was about to draw his sword, someone shot a gun. Sephiroth knew the bullet was coming at him and he dodged it. Spinning around, he faced a man with a rifle. The man glared at Sephiroth, "Who the hell do you think you are? You can't just come here killing the innocent!"

Sephiroth smirked, "This whole town is guilty! I will kill anyone I want to!"

With that, Sephiroth rushed the man and stabbed him with the Masamune, and cut him in the chest before taking the sword out. The gunman's eyes were wide as he stared at the blood that poured from the wound before dropping down onto the concrete, dead. Sephiroth the turned away and continued with his onslaught of the town.

The population of the place wasn't very big, and that disappointed Sephiroth. He wanted to kill many people. He had long since realized that he wasn't on the Planet anymore, so he could just take his anger out on these people. He wondered if Cloud was around here anywhere, if he was, Sephiroth would just love to stab his blade through him, that would be fun! But Sephiroth didn't sense Cloud nearby, but he could feel Cloud was somewhere close, but not in the town. There had to be another place somewhere around here…

Sephiroth cut down three more people before someone shouted, "Call in the SeeDs! This guy's to powerful!" Sephiroth quickly slew the man and then turned to look at a woman standing there, looking at him with horror.

She turned away from him and ran into a nearby house, dragging her son along with her. She slammed and locked the door. As if that could stop Sephiroth! He quickly took out a manipulating materia that could disguise himself so that it would be easier to get around.

&&&

Suddenly a voice boomed through the Garden, "All SeeDs are to go to Balamb! It is under attack! Repeat: All SeeDs are to go to Balamb! It is under attack!"

Squall looked at the people around him, and decided against leaving them here. They might cause trouble, because deep within Squall's mind, he still believed them to all be drunk, or brainwashed. That was an option. "Alright, come on guys, you can help us out." Squall said, interrupting Barret.

Everyone turned to look at Squall and it was Cloud who spoke up, "With what? We don't know what this Balamb place is, nor are we 'SeeDs'!" Cloud raised two fingers up on both hands and moved them up and down.

Squall rolled his eyes, "Just shut up and come on!"

Squall ran out the gates, everyone else following him, but Barret told Marlene to stay there and go over to the cafeteria and wait for him. Marlene, who had already been through there looking for Tifa, nodded and ran off.

Once they were outside the Garden, Squall drew his Gunblade and led the group down a dirt road. "Watch out for monsters, this place is packed full of them!" he warned.

&&&

"I can tell…" Tifa muttered, she had spotted eyes looking at her through the trees and sped up. She liked to fight monsters, but right now, she was worried for Cloud. He kept flinching with every step he took and his movements were unsteady. Maybe he needed to have stayed at the Garden with Marlene. Tifa mentally slapped herself, there was no way she could force Cloud to stay somewhere, he'd only follow them!

It would take a miracle to get Cloud to stay in once place! She sighed and kept close to Cloud. Then, Tifa remembered. She reached into one of her pocket and took out a bottle. "Oh yeah, I forgot about these, here." Tifa handed Cloud the bottle of aspirin.

"Yuffie, give us some materia, we know you have some on you." Barret growled at the ninja. Yuffie blinked and said, "Um uh…." Barret glared at her. "Oh alright!" Yuffie gave in and handed Barret a thunder materia. She gave Cloud a fire one, Tifa and blizzard one, and Red a cure one. "There, but that's all your getting of my materia!" she snapped.

Cloud removed the buster sword from its sheath and placed the materia into it and sheathed it once more. Everyone else put theirs into their weapons, while Squall, Rinoa, and Selphie looked at them in confusion. "What were those?" Rinoa asked.

Just as Tifa was about to answer, they heard shouts from behind them, "Hey Squall! Wait up!" Everyone turned to see two people running after them.

&&&

Squall sighed, _here comes Zell and Ivrine, nice._ He thought to himself, then he shrugged. They were his friends, and they were also SeeDs. They both caught up to them. It was Zell who spoke, "Hey! Why didn't you wait up on us!"

"Because Balamb is under attack, and as you see, I have a pretty big party with me right now." Squall responded and continued walking towards Balamb.

Ivrine had gone over to Tifa and was walking beside her. He didn't do anything or say anything only because Vincent and Cloud were watching him. Ivrine had taken one glance at Vincent and declared him the creepiest guy he knew.

&&&

Cloud could see the town up ahead. He could also see smoke coming from it and tensed. Squall and the others had picked up speed and were now running down the trail towards Balamb. Cloud picked up speed also, but he had quickly swallowed some of the aspirins that Tifa had given him. Where she had gotten them, Cloud didn't know, nor did it matter.

As they reached the town, Squall had completely forgotten about the materia, Cloud noticed. And just moments after he thought about it, they reached the town and found many dead people. Cloud blinked, realizing that who ever was attacking the town was using a sword. Every dead person looked the same, either cut in half, or stabbed and cut.

Everyone split up, weapons drawn. Cloud went straight, and then coming to a house. The door was broken down. Zell, who had been following Cloud, suddenly yelled, "Ma!" This was Zell's mother's house!

Cloud and Zell rushed inside, only to find that many things were untouched, but a few things had been turned over. They came to another doorway that had no door on it. Cloud went inside and saw that it was empty. "Is anybody here?" Cloud called through the house.

Zell looked around the room and then spotted another door. Funny, he had never seen it before. It was steel door that had no damage what so ever on it. He reached for the door handle and tried to open it, only to find it locked. "Ma? Are you in there?" Zell yelled.

Cloud turned to face Zell's direction. The door opened slightly and a woman poked her head out. "Is it safe to come out yet?" she asked, quietly, looking around the room.

"Yeah, I think so. Cloud, go check my room, see if anyone's up there." Zell ordered.

Cloud nodded, figuring the only place Zell's room could be was upstairs where they hadn't been yet. He rushed up the steps, and found the door open, and not knocked down, but the room was empty. He noticed that the window was broken, but it was not big enough for someone to fit through. It was as if someone had thrown something through it.

He hurried back down stairs and left Zell with his parents, and went outside and continued looking. He soon came upon a dock and found a boy cowering in the corner, his hands covered with blood. Cloud went over to him, "What happened here? Are you alright?"

The boy nodded, "I-I think so. Where's my mother? Have you seen her?"

Cloud blinked, he didn't know the boy, nor did he know the boy's mother. He couldn't answer 'yes' like he wanted to. "No, I'm sorry, I haven't."

The boy's eyes were full of tears as he clutched his hands. "M-My hands they h-hurt. H-He cut them…"

Cloud blinked again, his Mako eyes looking down at the boy's hands. "Who cut them?" he asked, feeling pity towards the boy.

The boy looked up and opened his mouth to answer, but he never formed words. Cloud was confused at first, but then he noticed the boy was looking over his shoulder in horror. Cloud spun around only to come face to face with a familiar face…a very familiar face.


	5. Chapter 5

Here's some humor for you guys! Also this is the longest chapter I've written for this fan fic-it's 11 pages on my Word thing. Yeah, well tell me what yout hink of it!

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Chapter Five 

"Mother?" Cloud gasped, looking at his mother. She was dead, how could she be here?

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Sephiroth blinked, what the hell? He didn't want to be Cloud's damn mother! He looked down at the materia and wondered why the heck it was malfunctioning, was that even possible?

Suddenly he heard loud footsteps and turned around to see Vincent running down there, with a gun in his hands. Vincent's red eyes seemed to flash and Sephiroth heard him breath, "Hojo?"

Sephiroth could have sworn Hojo was dead to…_Wait a second! It's this damn materia! I am not that crazy scientist!_ Sephiroth, without thinking, threw the materia out into the ocean and watched it sink. He blinked, suddenly realizing what he had done. Sephiroth turned to Cloud and saw a look of laughter and anger spread across hi face. Vincent…well Vincent's expression didn't change. It never changed…did it? Sephiroth didn't know, but why did he really care?

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Vincent blinked, somewhat relieved that the person standing there hadn't really been Hojo. But maybe he would have preferred that to Sephiroth. Oh well…He kept his gun aimed at Sephiroth's head, ready to fire. Then he noticed Cloud. Cloud had already taken out his buster sword and was glaring at Sephiroth like he was going to cut his head off.

Vincent shook his head, trying not to get distracted as he lowered his gun slightly, aiming at Sephiroth's heart. Sephiroth obviously had confusion written in his eyes, but it quickly faded and was replaced by a mocking glint. He now wore a smirk on his face as he lifted the Masamune threateningly. Vincent glared at Sephiroth, unsure whether to shoot him or not, but Cloud was right behind Sephiroth. If the bullet went through Sephiroth, it would hit Cloud.

Vincent shrugged it off and took hesitant steps forward. "Sephiroth, you attacked this town? Why?" He asked, motioning with his gun for Cloud to move.

Cloud didn't notice, and that made Vincent feel annoyed and angry at the same time. Sephiroth glanced at Cloud, eyeing his buster sword as he responded, turning his head to Vincent, "Because, these people do not deserve to live even if we are on another planet, Vincent."

Vincent glared at Sephiroth, "You had no reason what so ever to attack them. Have you not realized that this town, this planet-it has done nothing wrong! They have done no harm to our planet and yet you kill them!"

"Well isn't that my job?" Sephiroth smirked again as he spun around to Cloud, his Masamune whistling through the air. Vincent pulled the trigger to his gun. It fired. And fired again. And again. And again.

Sephiroth's eyes grew wide as bullet after bullet entered his body. But that did not stop him from trying to kill Cloud. Cloud used his buster sword to block the Masamune just in time because Sephiroth's movements had slowed.

&&&

Squall looked around him, seeing many people hiding in places and a few others that were already dead. He felt sorry for the town. He wanted to help them, but he had no idea where to find the culprit. Squall glanced at Rinoa who had come along with him. She had a haunted look on her face, and her eyes held great pity.

"Many we should go down by the harbor." Squall suggested.

"Cloud went down there, but yeah, he's drunk after all, and if the murderer is down there, he wouldn't be able to fight." Rinoa replied, her voice oddly calm and steady despite her facial expression.

Squall only nodded. He wouldn't tell Rinoa that he thought that they weren't drunk. Or crazy, that maybe they weren't lying. He couldn't, she might think that he was crazy. Squall didn't want that so he turned towards the harbor and hurried off to it with Rinoa.

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Meanwhile Cloud was fighting Sephiroth while Sephiroth was trying to get Vincent's gun. Sephiroth was wounded and bleeding, but his strength was unharmed. He was fighting Cloud, slowly getting closer to Vincent who had stopped firing, knowing that it was an unfair fight. Vincent didn't fight unfair like that.

Sephiroth swung the Masamune at Cloud, and Cloud parried again and again. Sephiroth had managed to hit Cloud and injured him a few times since the battle began. This wasn't going to be easy with five bullets in Sephiroth's back.

&&&

Reno sat in a chair, looking at Tseng, Rude, and Elena. He was bored out of his mind and thought he was going to go crazy. All they were doing was sitting in this big old city, doing nothing. Well it as nothing to Reno. All they were doing was discussing about how they could get out of this place, where ever they were. _Man, if one of those waiters comes by, I'm ordering some whiskey and getting drunk. Then I can have fun…_

Reno's thoughts were interrupted by Tseng, "Reno, you and Elena are to go to the town across the sea; it is called Balamb. There, you should find a Garden called Balamb Garden. Go there and get us some information."

Reno blinked, his green eyes staring at Tseng with utter confusion, "What's a Garden?" he asked.

Tseng groaned, "You've been in your own little dream world again, haven't you? Elena, tell him on the way there. I'm not going to repeat myself."

Reno grinned sheepishly and then asked, "Why do we go to a 'Garden'?"

"Are you questioning your orders?" Tseng growled, his patience with Reno wearing thin.

Reno blinked, he'd better not make Tseng mad. Tseng was his boss that could fire him. Reno didn't like the idea of living in the slums in Midgar. Not a fun thought. Reno shook his head and Elena stood up, giving Reno a glare.

"If you mess with me, I'll shoot you in the head!" she growled.

Reno blinked again, in surprise. When had she gotten so threatening? He shrugged and just followed her out the bar. She led him down the streets and outside the town. Reno didn't like being bossed around by her, or anyone, but he had no choice seeing as she knew where they were going, and he didn't. She took him down tot he waters edge, looking carefully around her.

Reno noted that she was fingers the gun in her pocket. _Like there's going to be any monsters around this old dump!_ Reno thought irritably.

But just as he thought that, Reno spied something flying through the air. He pretended not to notice it as they reached the waters edge. A single boat rested there. "What does this thing run on?" Reno asked, eyeing the boat's motor. It obviously did not run on Mako.

"Gas, stupid." Elena responded bluntly, climbing in. She started the boat as Reno got in.

"Why are you so grouchy today?" Reno asked, a teasing note in his voice. "Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? _Or did Tseng ignore you?_" Reno dared. He knew that Elena liked Tseng a lot, though he didn't see why. It was always fun to sit there and tease her about it.

Elena turned to face him, death written all over h face. Her eyes burned with fury and she cracked her knuckles. _Uh-oh,_ was Reno's only thought before Elena punched him in the face. It hurt, hell yes! And she busted his nose, but nothing else. "Ow! What was that for?" he groaned.

"Next time it'll be a bullet in your head." Elena threatened. Reno fell silent after that, and tried to find something to wipe the blood off his nose with as the female Turk steered the boat towards an island just close enough to see off in the distance.

&&&

Squall and Rinoa came past Tifa and Red who were searching for the killer, but also for people who might still be alive. Squall stopped and turned to look at them. "Are any of them alive?" he asked, stepping away as a pool of blood that was still fresh trickled down where his boots were.

Tifa shook her head, "No. But we have an idea who killed these people. Squall, Rinoa, we have to stick in a group if it's true. Otherwise, he'll pick us off like flies."

Rinoa, Squall noticed, shifted her position as she asked, "Who do you think did this?"

"An old foe of ours, that's who. His killings are always identical, in a way." Red responded, dipping his head as he looked at a little girl, her eyes were closed and he could sense the life in her. It was fainted. "This young girl is still alive, but her parents…I'm afraid, are dead. We must treat her at once if she is to live."

Squall looked down at the girl and quickly reached into his pocket for a Hi-Potion. He brought it out and handed it to Tifa. Tifa bent down over the girl and used the Hi-Potion. Squall watched as the girl's eyes opened weakly. "Who hurt her?"

"Sephiroth," Tifa responded. Then she turned to Red, "Go take her back to the Garden, maybe they can help."

"Yeah, they can, but who _is_ Sephiroth?" Rinoa asked, confusion spreading across her face. Squall, on the other hand, turned to glance at her and then back at Tifa.

"Well we're going down to the harbor where Cloud is. He went by himself because Zell is with his parents. You going to come too?" Squall asked Tifa as Red lifted the girl onto his back and took off.

Tifa watched Red disappear and then turned to Squall, "Yeah, I'm alone now, so I guess it's better to be safe than sorry." Tifa stood up straight and made Squall lead her to the harbor.

&&&

Yuffie looked around her, unsure of where she was, or even what she was looking for. She knew that some materia was around the place some where, but at the same time, no one was on the street she had taken, so what was she looking for here? The houses seemed abandoned and not a person was in sight. _And I thought air sickness was bad…_

Well, she knew she was supposed to be looking for the murderer, and people who were still alive, but this place was abandoned! She walked down the street, looking around her. Every time something made a noise, she jumped. "Come on, Yuffie, pull yourself together! Remember, you are the Great Ninja Yuffie!" Yuffie spoke to herself so that she could boost her confidence.

Just as she was about to leave the street, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. Yuffie jumped, tensing as she spun around and punched the person. Suddenly Yuffie blinked in shock and muttered, "Uh-oh…" as she realized who it was.

"Ow! That hurt!" Ivrine complained, rubbing the spot where Yuffie had punched him in the face.

"Oh, sorry, Ivrine. I didn't know anyone else was here…" Yuffie apologized. She looked at Ivrine who shook his head and waved a gloved hand at her, "No need to say you're sorry!"

&&&

When Squall reached the harbor, he was surprised to see Cloud leaning over a silver-haired figure that was at least six feet tall. Vincent had a gun aimed at the silver-haired man's head and seemed to be muttering something Squall couldn't here. The silver-haired man had an eleven-foot sword in his hand and by the looks of it, had stabbed Cloud with it.

"Cloud!" Tifa yelled, running down the steps.

The silver-haired man turned his head to look at them as he withdrew his sword was Cloud's body. Squall was frozen by the color of the man's eyes. They were strange, a dark green and his pupils weren't normal. Who was this person?

"Sephiroth!" Tifa growled, approaching him. Squall suddenly came back to life and drew his Gunblade out. This person was the guy that had murdered everyone in Balamb. Also, he suddenly realized, Cloud and everyone else hadn't been lying.

Squall went down the steps, watching Cloud as he stood up straight, lifting that big lug of a sword up. How he did that, Squall would never know. Cloud motioned for Tifa to go away as he was about to swing the giant blade. But Sephiroth knew it was coming and quickly side stepped. Vincent, who still had his gun trained on Sephiroth, moved his arm to where the gun's muzzle was pointing at Sephiroth again-and he fired for a sixth time.

Squall didn't do anything, figuring that if this gun was shoot plenty of times, he'd die. But it didn't work that way with Sephiroth. Sephiroth only turned to glare at Vincent from the pain of the bullets before knowing that he had too many opponents to fight against. He ran for it.

Squall hadn't expected Sephiroth to be able to run so fast either and couldn't stop him as he raced up the steps and vanished. "Who the hell…was that?" Squall muttered to himself, staring at where Sephiroth had vanished.

Cloud, Vincent, and Tifa turned to look at Rinoa and Squall. They were silent and Cloud's eyes bored into Squall's like blue fire. Squall knew that it was Sephiroth; he knew that Sephiroth was a murdered, but he had never expected to see the ex-General here, in Balamb.

Squall didn't know if anyone had heard him, but he'd rather them not. As he moved down towards Cloud, he noticed the blood dripping off of him from where Sephiroth's blade had stabbed him. He could see the emotion in Cloud's eyes; the pain and the anger.

"Are you okay, Cloud?" Squall asked after a moment's pause.

Cloud nodded, blinking. He looked past Squall at Rinoa who hadn't moved. She seemed shaken about something. Squall turned his head to look at her and saw that her lips were twisted into a frown and her eyes were distant. He turned to look at Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent and then spun around and went up to Rinoa.

"What's wrong, Rinoa?" he asked her, looking at her as she shifted her position and looked away from him.

"It's nothing, Squall…" she responded lightly. Then she looked up at Squall suddenly, "Where's Ivrine, Zell, and Selphie?"

Squall blinked, he had forgotten about them. He looked around, not seeing any of them. Fear flooded through him, they might be in danger! No wait…Zell was with his mother…but the others, Squall didn't know.

"Well if you guys are alright, Rinoa and I are going to go look for Ivrine " Squall called down to the others.

Cloud and Tifa nodded, Vincent just looked at him before turning away. Squall didn't really know what to make of Vincent. He never showed his feelings and he was always quiet. Something about him seemed so depressing and angry. Whatever it was, Squall felt that he didn't need to know; but something nagged at the back of his mind.

He shook his head slightly and led Rinoa off to find the others, "Oh and if you see Barret, tell him to meet us down here!" Tifa called.

Squall nodded, "Okay, I will." And then he vanished around the corner.

Rinoa followed him without speaking. Squall could tell that she wasn't going to tell him what was really wrong with her, so he wouldn't asked.

&&&

Yuffie felt uncomfortable around Ivrine. He kept putting his arm around her, which annoyed her greatly. She was tempted to tell him to go away, but then she'd be alone again and back where she started. And…then came the thing about Ivrine knowing where they were going.

"Soooo…Seen any dead guys yet?" Yuffie asked, breaking the silence. She still hadn't seen any life besides Ivrine.

"Nope, well when we first got here, yeah, but that doesn't count. Otherwise I've been following you." Ivrine responded, trying to put his arm around Yuffie's shoulder again.

Suddenly Yuffie's eyes flashed. She didn't say what she was thinking, for fear that Ivrine might take it the wrong way, but he did make it sound as if he _had_ been stalking her. Yuffie shook her head, she didn't like him, and she wasn't afraid to hit him or anything, so why worry? Suddenly Yuffie remembered what she had also been looking for, "Okay then, have you seen any materia around?"

Ivrine blinked, confusion spreading over his face, "What's materia?"

Yuffie blinked, it was her turn to act confused, "_You don't know what materia is?_"

Ivrine shook his head. "Nope, never heard of it."

Yuffie sighed. She pulled out some materia from a pocket in the vest she was wearing. It was a yellow materia. "This is a materia. This one in particular is a Thunder materia. Materia is formed from powers forged from the Lifestream. I guess you could say it's a solid form of the Lifestream that is concentrated to form this."

Ivrine nodded and then asked another question, "What's a Lifestream?"

Yuffie sighed, her head dropping. If this guy didn't know what the Lifestream was, it was pointless explaining it to him…but she could try. Maybe Ivrine could help her find some materia in this place. Yuffie raised her head, "The Lifestream is a stream of life that circles our planet. It is the very core of life and whenever you die, you return to the Lifestream. But I guess, over here, it doesn't work that way, right?"

"I guess so…" Ivrine responded, his voice dripping with confusion, but he didn't press Yuffie any further with it.

While they were chatting, all at once, Yuffie noticed something. A young boy was slouched against the wall. His eyes were open and staring at the ground. Blood trickled down a gash in his head. Yuffie approached the boy with Ivrine following close behind her. She bent down, and nearly puked.

The boy had been scalped and killed. Blood was still wet on his fingers and it ran down his back and onto the street. Yuffie backed away, horrified. She gasped in air and accidentally bumped into Ivrine. "Sorry," she muttered, not trusting herself to speak.

She moved away from Ivrine, feeling sick. Yuffie turned her head away and grabbed Ivrine's coat sleeve, "Let's get out of here before I throw up!" she gasped loudly, pulling Ivrine with her as she moved away from the boy.

"The poor kid. But…Yuffie, who killed him?" Ivrine asked as he was dragged along by a sick looking Yuffie.

"I don't know and I don't care at the moment. I can't stand the sight of someone missing half of their forehead!" Yuffie responded weakly.

&&&

While Squall searched for everyone, he heard someone talking in the now seemingly-ghost-town. It sounded like a girl with a very high-pitched voice. Rinoa looked around, searching for someone. Then she spotted an alley. "Maybe they're in there." Rinoa pointed.

Squall noticed the alley and nodded. He headed towards it and as soon as he walked into it, he noticed that it appeared abandoned. No one; not a single person was in there, not even a dead person. But he defiantly heard voices.

"Yeah but he was alone, you can't just forget about a dead person! And, you never know, someone could be in the houses."

"Oh no! I'm not going to go looking for more dead people! I'm not a person for airships or dead people! Yeah, sure, I love to kick the bad guys asses, but no way am I going to look for someone dead. They can stay dead for all I care!" That was the woman they had heard.

Squall motioned for Rinoa to follow him as he went further into the alley.

"Yeah, but, isn't that what you were ordered to do, look for dead and alive people?"

"I'm not looking for a dead person!"

"What about materia? There might be some here, you never know…"

"That's true…but still, if a dead person in this town had materia, I would know. I am a great materia thief and no one is my better!"

Squall listened to them and wondered who was talking. The two people were still too far off to identify their voices, but whoever they were, they were alive. Rinoa and Squall hurried to turn around the corner. As soon as they turned, they spotted a dead boy with half of his forehead missing. Rinoa stopped dead in her tracks, looking at the boy with horror. Squall's eyes widened. He hadn't expected this. Maybe that was what the two people ahead had been talking about.

"Come on, Rinoa, there's nothing we can do here…" Squall said, leading Rinoa away from the boy. Squall could tell that Sephiroth had to have done that. It was too clean of cut for anyone without a sword, and Squall didn't know anyone here that had a sword, it was all guns for everyone now.

Sephiroth would pay for slaughtering this peaceful town without reason. Cloud hadn't lied, their nightmare was now his and everyone else. "Rinoa…Cloud and the others weren't lying. Everything here…and there on their 'Planet' it's real…and it's here."

Rinoa looked up at Squall with horror, "You mean that everything that Cloud told you aren't just drunken lies and everything is real?"

Squall nodded, "I thought they weren't lying at how serious they were all acting about their condition. Cloud though, I don't know what's up with him. Or Vincent. Both of them are strange, stranger than the others I mean."

"I've noticed that. Vincent is creepy. He seems so distant and so quiet. Like you, but…different at the same time. And Cloud, I think Cloud is sick. If aspirin didn't cure that headache, he needs something else. And Cloud's eyes are different, a deeper blue. They're strange." Rinoa spoke rather distantly, more to herself than Squall.

&&&

Yuffie glared at Ivrine as he tried to rap his arm around her shoulder again. She shrugged him off as he replied to her last remark about her being the greatest materia thief, "So if you're the greatest materia thief ever, have you stole from Cloud or any of his friends?"

Yuffie looked offended as she replied, "Of course! I have practically half of his gil!"

Ivrine hadn't expected that. Then he remembered the gil he always kept in his pocket, he looked at Yuffie and asked warily, "You haven't stolen any of my gil, have you?"

"Nope, but I will if you want me too." Yuffie replied, inching away from Ivrine as she spoke. Ivrine could tell that she didn't like him all that much, but he liked her-and Tifa. But it was obvious that Tifa was Cloud's woman; but it appeared that Yuffie was free. He did like Selphie, but Selphie wasn't like Yuffie-nope nothing like her!

"Uh, no thanks." Ivrine responded after a moments pause. He thought he had heard someone. Yuffie stopped all at once and Ivrine took a step past her before stopping too. They were being followed like he had suspected. Yuffie seemed to tense.

"Shh," she told him as she slunk towards the direction they had come. For all they knew, whoever was following them, could be the bad guys. Ivrine watched as Yuffie silently crept right up to the corner and peeked over into the next empty street.

Yuffie revealed herself as soon as she peeked over the corner. Then she motioned for Ivrine to follow. When Ivrine reached her, he spotted Squall and Rinoa coming their way.

&&&

"It figures he's with a girl…" Rinoa sighed.

Squall nodded, not responding as he went up to them, "We found the murderer. He's gone, but now we have to find everyone else. Have you guys seen Selphie or Barret?"

Both of them shook their heads, "No, but who was the murderer?" Yuffie asked, looking around her. Squall noticed her eyes flashed.

It was Rinoa who answered Yuffie's question, "It was Sephiroth,"

Yuffie looked up at them with horror. It was clear she hadn't expected it. Squall could understand why; from what Cloud had said, Sephiroth was supposed to be dead. But here he was, killing everyone in Balamb; in fact, Squall hadn't seen a single living person yet besides his friends.

&&&

Cloud didn't know what to think. The pain in his chest hurt terribly from where he had been stabbed, sure, but Sephiroth was alive. He was supposed to be dead, but there he had been, using a manipulating materia to change his appearance. Had Sephiroth been alive all this time? Cloud swore that falling into the pool of Mako would have killed him, but maybe he had been wrong…

He clutched the hole in his chest, feeling the warm liquid seeping through his fingers. He winced as Tifa laid a hand on his shoulder. Cloud forced himself to sit down, feeling the pressure applied to the wound. "Are you okay, Cloud?" Tifa asked for the third time already.

"Yeah…I'm fine Tifa, no need to worry." Cloud assured her, but his voice was growing weak. From all the pain in his body, the aspirin had long-since stopped working and he could feel the pain returning to his head. _Why will this headache not leave me alone?_ Cloud groaned to himself.

Vincent had come over, still holding his gun. "I wasn't going to be unfair." That was what Vincent had said, and Cloud guessed he was saying he was sorry. It was close enough and Cloud just waved him off, shutting his eyes, "It's alright, I-I'm fine."

Cloud's voice faltered for a second. He had shut his eyes for a reason. His vision was blurry again and everything was spinning around him. What the hell was wrong with him? He tried to clear his mind as he heard Tifa moving around for something. Cloud opened one eye, but just barley and noticed that she was groaning.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Red, he has our Cure materia. I told him to go take a little girl to the Garden so she could be helped. She was barley alive, and I didn't think twice about Red's materia. I hope he gets back soon because you can't go anywhere with a hole in your chest." Tifa fumbled with a pebble as she looked down at the ground. Cloud could tell that she was worried for him.

He didn't like the expression on her face. "It's alright, Tifa. I've been stabbed before by Sephiroth, twice in fact. I can handle it." Cloud reassured her.

"Oh I know that Cloud, it's just that you're sick." Tifa responded lightly.

&&&

It was no surprise to Vincent that Tifa was worried for Cloud. He knew that Cloud would be fine after a few days of healing, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he kept an eye on the stairs, waiting for the others to return. He had blocked those two out. No one came and minutes passed.

Finally Vincent walked over to the stairs, prepared to go look for them when Red appeared right next to him.

* * *

How did you guys like it? Oh and thank you guys for all the reviews! I love reviews! If you're lucky, I might be able to update again tomorrow! 


	6. Chapter 6

Entwined Destiny

Chapter Six

Reno had finally found something to wipe the blood away from his nose, and he hadn't said a word to Elena. Then, he realized, she still hadn't told him what a Garden was. He dared voice his question, "Tseng, he told you to tell me what a Garden is."

Elena shot him a glare as they rode across the ocean, but responded, "A Garden is a military camp where they train SeeDs, or special service solider or something like that. I'm not explaining everything to you, so shut up." Elena growled as they drew closer to the land.

"Why are you so mad at me?" Reno whined. He looked around him, finding nothing to do but just sit there. "If it's about Tseng, I'm sorry." Elena turned look at him, her eyes wide with horror. "What?" Reno asked her, confused.

"Oh my gosh! You said you were sorry! Reno, are you sick?" Elena gasped in shock.

Reno blinked and then narrowed his eyes at the insult. He glared at her and did not answer her. Instead, he pulled the string on the engine and made it go faster. Within a few moments, they had reached the land, Elena still staring at Reno as if something were wrong with him. Reno shook his head and got out of the boat. Elena followed and then she seemed to become her usual calm self.

When they got out, Reno realized that this was not a beach, but a town. And he was at a harbor. He looked around, seeing three people and a familiar looking hybrid dog that reminded Reno of a cat. He looked at the three people.

He recognized the ex-Turk because Vincent was the only person he knew with a ripped up red cape like that. Then he noticed Cloud, the one with the SOLDIER outfit on, and then Tifa wearing the leather. The dog hybrid was Red XIII or Nanaki. Cloud was sitting down, leaning forward, he looked sick or something.

The four companions must have heard the motor boat because they all turned around to look at Elena and Reno. "Long time no see?" Reno greeted, leaving Elena in the boat as he walked over to them. That was when he noticed all the blood on the stone ground. "What happened here?" he asked.

Elena got out of the boat, "Wow…Looks like something went on…" She had taken out her gun and had it held at her side with her finger on the trigger.

"Reno, Elena, what are you doing here?" Vincent growled, glaring at them. The Turks were the enemy. Vincent, who still had his gun out, raised it up to Reno's head. His finger rested on the trigger; his face was emotionless.

"That's none of your business. The real question is, is what are _you doing here?_" Reno growled, holding his electric rod in his hand. His green eyes looked down at Cloud, who, he noticed, was holding his chest, blood seeping through his fingers. His eyes were shut and his face scrunched tight with pain. Reno pointed his weapon at Cloud, and looked at Vincent, "What happened to him?"

Vincent didn't respond, instead, he moved his gun to Reno's feet and fired. Three bullets collided with the stone just at Reno's shoes. Reno jumped back in surprise, "What was that for! We haven't done anything-yet!" Reno added.

Elena, who had come up beside Reno, growled at Vincent, "That's _my_ job!"

Reno looked at Elena with confusion, "What! You are not going to shoot at me!" Reno snapped. Elena turned to glare at him, but she put her gun away.

"Forget being enemies for now. We have an order and that _does not_ involve killing you three. Reno, come on, Tseng will be wanting us back soon." Elena said icily.

"Tseng? He's here? Who else is here?" Cloud asked, opening his Mako blue eyes and looking up at Reno and Elena. He removed his body hand to reveal a rip in his clothes. Reno could tell that Cloud had been stabbed; by who, he didn't have the slightest idea.

"Rude, we don't know who else. And now that we have told you, tell us who's here that you know of." Reno demanded.

"All of AVALANCHE and…someone else." Tifa responded.

"That many? Well that's nice to know. Come on Reno, let's go." Elena ordered, grabbing Reno's sleeve and dragging him along with her. Reno tried to jerk away, but this woman was strong! He growled and glared at her, but followed. After a few moments, Elena let go and wiped her hand on her pants, "Ugh! Reno germs!" she muttered to herself.

&&&

"Hey guys, we have to go find Barret and Selphie now, come on." Squall ordered, turning around. "Unless you have seen them anywhere." he added.

Ivrine and Yuffie shook their heads and followed Squall and Rinoa. Rinoa's troubled expression had vanished and was replaced by an emotionless one. Squall wondered what was wrong with her. She was usually a carefree person who was always determined to go with what she thought was right, but at the moment, something was wrong. Could be about Cloud and all his friends? Squall was unsure, but he didn't think about it as they came past the boy again.

He had to turn his head, unable to look at it. The only living person of Balamb that he knew was that little girl, and she didn't even know if she was alive still. Squall looked around him, searching for his missing friends. "Barret! Selphie!" he called out. He didn't get an answer at first, but then he heard one. It was faint, but not far. "They're this way, come on."

Squall headed off towards the spot where he had heard the response. The others followed at they found themselves standing in front of the gas station. Barret and Selphie were standing there, looking at them expectantly. "Did you find the killer?" Barret asked.

"Yes, it was Sephiroth." Yuffie responded quickly. Barret blinked, about to ask something else when the sound of a gunshot filled the air.

Squall spun around to look at the direction of the harbor. "Either Vincent just shot at something, or someone else is down there." Squall muttered to himself. Then he turned to the others, "Come on, let's go see what that was about."

&&&

Rufus ShinRa looked around him, wondering where the hell he was. Nothing looked familiar and no one was around that he knew. All that Rufus knew was that he was in a city and was standing in front of a mansion. He wondered who lived there, maybe they could help-everyone else seemed to just ignore him. That really annoyed Rufus, but he'd get over it.

Rufus went up to the mansion and knocked on the door. He wondered if anyone would hear that…oh well. Almost at once, the doors opened to reveal and man wearing a General suit. He had a stern look on his face and he looked agitated about something. The man stood as tall as Rufus and when he spoke, it was as if he were speaking to a soldier or something, "What do you want?"

Rufus blinked, "I'm trying to find out where I am."

"You're in Galbadain. Who are you?" the man demanded.

"Rufus ShinRa," Rufus was only half-surprised the man didn't know who he was. He had never heard of 'Galbadain' before. No one seemed to know him anyway.

"Never heard of you. Why are you dressed so formally?" the general asked him.

Rufus blinked again, unsure whether the man was prying, or kidding. "Because I'm the president of ShinRa. Who are you?" Rufus asked, his voice had an edge to it.

"General Caraway, never heard of ShinRa. But now that you know where you are, get out unless you need something else." General Caraway growled.

"Well…actually I do." Rufus responded. "I'm looking for five people. Their names are Tseng, Elena, Rude, Reno, and Hojo."

"Try the hotel, they might be down there. Go that way, and then turn left." General Caraway pointed out a direction. "Then you can't miss it."

Rufus said thanks to the general. Why, he didn't know, he never said thanks to anyone! Oh well…he took the direction there and found it. He entered it and found some stairs that led down to a bar. If he were looking for Reno or Tseng, that's where they would be! He went over to the stairs and walked down them. Sure enough he found Tseng and Rude sitting there, Tseng was sipping on something.

Rufus went over to them. They hadn't noticed him yet and so he sat down. Tseng glanced at him and then shouted, "Sir! There you are!"

"Yeah, here I am. Where's Reno and Elena?" Rufus asked, noticing they were no where to be seen.

Tseng blinked and sighed, taking another sip of his drink before answering, "They're going to Balamb Garden for some information."

"And that is where?" Rufus asked.

"In the country of Balamb." Tseng responded

"Oh." Rufus replied bluntly.

"They should be getting back soon enough." Rude commented, feeling bored.

&&&

Vincent looked down at Red, "Is that girl okay?" he asked.

Red nodded, "Nurse Janie said she'd be okay, but there was still a big chance of infection setting in from her wounds. If they keep them clean, yeah, she'll be fine, but if not…well you know…" Red spoke, his voice calm.

Vincent blinked, "Yeah…" he sighed, "Where are the others?"

He looked back down at Red, who shook his head, indicating that he hadn't seen any of them when he was coming back. "I don't know, Vincent, but they should be getting back soon, I hope. Oh, and have you guys figured out what's up with Cloud yet?"

"No, we only know that aspirin isn't going to work and that he seems to be getting sicker." Vincent responded, but as they spoke about Cloud's condition, they heard Tifa speak up in an urgent voice, "Vincent, Red, we need to get Cloud back to the Garden now! He's blacking out again."

Things couldn't get any worse…Vincent turned around to look at Cloud, whose eyes were dilated and he was groaning from the pain. The blood from the stab in his chest wasn't flowing as badly anymore, but Vincent could tell Cloud was in a great deal of pain.

He walked over to Cloud with Red following. With Tifa's help, they lifted him up, one arm over Vincent's shoulder, and one over Tifa's shoulder. Then, with Red's guidance, they drug Cloud out of the harbor and towards the Garden. Vincent could still here the pain in Cloud's voice.

&&&

Just as Squall reached the harbor, he found Vincent and Tifa dragging Cloud up the steps. Red was in front of them. He stopped, wondering what was up. Cloud seemed to be half conscious and was groaning. "What's wrong?' Yuffie asked, looking at Cloud with worry.

Tifa looked up at them and motioned for them to move, "He's sick with something. And being stabbed isn't helping him at all. Squall, take us back to the Garden." Tifa ordered.

Squall blinked and nodded. Rinoa took one glance at Cloud's condition was turned to Squall, "They're right, he's sick with something. And from the looks of it, Cloud is in a great deal of pain, let's take him back to Nurse Janie."

* * *

Okay! Well, I hope you liked this chapter! Okay, I'm giving you chapter seven and eight! 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

A man was sitting in the grass in an empty field. He didn't feel very good. In fact, he felt rather sick. He couldn't remember anything at all. His black spiky hair rustled in the wind. He sighed and kept his hand on the handle of his long, thick sword that laid beside him. He wanted to go find someone, anyone that he knew, but the man feared that if he found someone, it would not be someone he knew.

Some sense in him told him he wasn't in Midgar, or near it. Not even close to Nimblheim, Coastal Del Sol, Junon, or anywhere near any of those places. He groaned from the pain in his head and stomach. He wanted to throw up and sleep, but no, he feared this area. There was no telling what kind of monster resided in these fields. So, he decided, that he would go find civilization whether he liked it or not, and find an inn to stay at.

He kept his fingers clenched on his sword as he picked himself up. He didn't sheath the sword, but he drug it on the ground, heading west. His blue eyes scanned the area, but he sensed, nor found a single monster anywhere. Off in the distance, he saw a small black speck, but he did not know if it was a house, or a cliff, or even a rock or tree. There was no way of telling, but whatever it was, it was the only thing around him except grass and mountains.

Dragging the large sword, his felt the sharp pain in his stomach. The man shook his head, trying to rid himself of the sickness he felt inside of him. His head hurt, but not as bad as it had when he had stressed himself too hard when forcing himself to walk about a mile. Yes, the man had been in the vast ocean of grass for about two hours, stopping in between walks, and now that he had finished his fifth rest, he had spotted something. That brought him hope, but it did not help the pain the seared and ripped through his body.

"I will find you again…" the man whispered confidently to himself. He was certain that he could find the people he was looking for. He had been searching for a long time now, and he wasn't about to stop looking for them.

&&&

Sephiroth felt the pain of where he had been shot, fading away. That was good, the JENOVA cells inside of him was healing his body. Right now he was just outside of the town he had slaughtered, glaring at it. He now knew that Cloud, his little puppet was here along with his damn friends, but that also gave him the chance to kill them.

He knew that a lot of people had believed him dead after he had fallen into the Mako pool and even after Cloud had hacked him to pieces, but no, Sephiroth wouldn't die that easily! Now he was going to kill Strife once and for all, along with all of AVALANCHE. He had killed Aeris already, which had been pleasurable, and Sephiroth now wanted to kill Tifa. Break Cloud's heart. That would be fun, but Sephiroth would kill anyone he could, even if Strife went first.

Sephiroth turned from the ghost-town and headed towards some other place. He didn't, though, go to the Garden. He knew very well that there were many well-trained fighters there, and that Cloud and his little friends were staying there. No, he would go in search for some help. Yes, help. Sephiroth knew he'd need it because of the new people with Strife. He didn't know how many new friends Strife had, but Sephiroth was well-aware at how strong they were.

He turned to the east and headed towards the mountains. This small island had to have some more people on it, and if not, he would go somewhere else to look for some of his own 'friends'.

&&&

Kadaj and his gang glared at the storekeeper. Kadaj had 'borrowed' Yazoo's gun and was now pointing it at the man's head. "Stop joking around and tell me how we can get back to the Edge!" he snarled at the man. His finger rested on the trigger of the Velvet Nightmare

The shopkeeper was a man in his late fifties and was giving Kadaj a look of terror as he responded, "I-I've told you already! I d-don't know where that is!" His hands were held up above his head and he was leaning away from Kadaj. Yazoo was just watching in silence, his eyes flashing. Loz stood a few feet off, a smirk on his face.

Kadaj cocked the gun, "Stop playing games or a bullet will lodge its self in your head! If you haven't heard of the Edge, surely, you've heard of Midgar. Which direction is it in?" Kadaj's menacing green stare bored into the man, his lips twisted into a sneer.

The man didn't know what to do. He'd never heard of the Edge or Midgar. He was terrified of these three young men, and he had only one way to escape death. He had to lie to them, but he knew that would cost him his shop and force him to leave town in case these men returned after discovering that he had lied to them.

"O-Oh, yeah, I-I know Midgar. It's in th-the east," he responded shakily, his heart racing.

Kadaj pulled the gun away from the man's face and turned around. The shopkeeper relaxed, but it was too soon to do that. Kadaj spun around again, raising the gun .He fired and a shriek split the air. The old man fell to his knees, pain racing through his whole body. His head slammed into the wooden counter as he slumped on the floor, blood pooling everywhere.

The bullet had shot right through his stomach and he was slowly bleeding to death. Kadaj smirked at all the blood and the man's cries. He left the shop without a word.

&&&

When Squall and the others had made it back to the Garden, they had brought Cloud directly to the Infirmary. Right after that, Squall had been called up to Cid's office. Now, here he went, up the elevator towards the Headmaster's office. When he entered the office, Cid was waiting for him. "Squall, I understand that you have brought friends into the Garden and that you took them with you to Balamb. Please, give me the report on everything that happened and everything that you know about these people you brought with you."

Squall nodded, and he began to explain everything that had happened. He told Cid that Zell was still with his parents because they hadn't had time to get him when they brought Cloud back. Then he told Cid about Sephiroth and everyone but a girl and Zell's parents and brother were dead. Cid didn't say anything through the whole thing, but when Squall said something about Cloud being sick, Cid interrupted.

"Sick? What do you mean? Is this some deadly germ that can spread through the whole Garden?" Cid demanded at once.

Squall blinked, he hadn't thought about it, but the more he thought about how much time he had spent with Cloud without feeling sick or anything, he shook his head, "I do not think so, sir."

Cid nodded, but there was distrust in his eyes. "Continue," he ordered.

When Squall had finished everything, Cid seemed troubled about something. And then he asked something that had nothing to do with the report, "Squall, have you seen Seifer anywhere today? He's not in the Garden and he hadn't informed anyone he was leaving, not even Fuujin or Raijin."

Squall blinked. He had long-since forgotten about Seifer's disappearance. He shook his head, "No, sir, Fuujin and Raijin told me he was missing, but I figured that he was just off somewhere."

Cid blinked and sighed, "Very well. I didn't expect you to know where he was, you two aren't the best of friends. Well, you are dismissed now."

Squall nodded and stood up. He exited the office and headed down to the infirmary, hoping to find out what was wrong with Cloud. When he reached the first floor, he was met by Rinoa. "Where are you going?" she asked him.

"To see Cloud and find out if he's okay." Squall responded, wondering why she was asking.

"Wow, you took my advice and are being more sociable for once! And you care for someone else besides yourself for a change, that's nice!" Rinoa said, smiling at Squall's expression.

He didn't respond, realizing what she said was true, but he shrugged her off and replied bluntly, "I have a right to know if my friends are okay."

Rinoa blinked and frowned at him, "You sure know how to turn something around, don't you?" she questioned.

"What do you mean?" Squall asked with confusion. Rinoa only sighed and shook her head, laughing to herself. "What?" he asked her again.

Rinoa was still laughing quietly as she replied, "You act so serious about everything. Anything I try to make a joke, you turn it around into some so serious! Squall, you'd make a great cop if you became one!" Rinoa laughed at that one, which made Squall frown.

"I don't want to become a cop, Rinoa!" Squall flustered. Rinoa wasn't making any since to him at the moment. And when he said that, she only laughed a little louder and looked at Squall with a smile and she shook with silent laughter.

"I know that, Squall!" Rinoa laughed.

Squall rolled his eyes and continued to make his way to the infirmary, Rinoa bugging him the whole way there. She could get annoying, but Squall just blocked her out and entered the infirmary. As soon as he took a step inside, Rinoa fell silent.

"So, did you figure out what's wrong?" Squall asked Nurse Janie who came to meet him. She shook her head.

"No, he's just sick from all I can tell. I gave him some more medicine and bandaged the place where he was stabbed at, but that's all. He'll have to get over the sickness himself, I have nothing for it." she explained to them.

Squall nodded and noticed Tifa sitting down in a chair, looking at him. Red was laying on the floor over an air vent cooling off from the heat. Barret was no where to be seen and Squall figured that he was in the Cafeteria with Marlene. Vincent had just vanished all together. Yuffie wasn't there either.

&&&

Elena had reached the Garden. She had completely forgotten about Reno, who was dragging himself along way behind her. Occasionally he would stop to look around and Elena would just keep on going. Of course she was thinking about what she should be doing but…she was also thinking about Tseng. She wondered when they could get back to there so she could rid herself of the pest that was behind her, looking at everything like a little kitten out for trouble.

_Damn idiot just needs to go sit down somewhere!_ Elena thought irritably. She wished that Tseng hadn't assigned Reno to come with her. Why couldn't it have been Rude…or Tseng himself? Suddenly she heard Reno shout out something from behind her.

Elena turned around to see Reno glaring at a kid about thirteen who was holding out some cards and saying something along the lines of, "Wanna play cards with me?"

Reno, of course, was looking at Elena, who was about twenty-five feet off and shouting if they had any cards he could play the kid with. Elena rolled her eyes and called back, "Reno, if you don't get your ass back here, and help me find the person who runs this damn place, I _will shoot you in the head where you stand!_" she threatened.

Reno sighed and went up to her, whining, "You just have to ruin all the fun don't you?"

Elena shot him a death glare, "Are you going to act like a Turk or a two year-old?"

Reno seemed to be thinking which made Elena want to smack him, but she just turned around and tried to block him out as she approached the gates.

&&&

As Sephiroth made his way across the mountains, he wondered where he was supposed to find his companions at. And when he said 'companions' he meant 'puppets'. Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, he had no idea where they were, and as he made his way over the mountains, something told him to find a small town that should be just up ahead. He didn't really know what was telling him that, but he knew it was connected to his puppets, so he continuing heading the direction he was going.

It wasn't long before he came across a vast clearing. Nothing was in sight in all directions except for a small village off towards the southeast. Sephiroth took one look at it, and guessed that was where his puppets were. He hurried towards it, anxious to kill Strife and his friends, but when he neared the village, a flash of pink in the grass caught his eyes.

Sephiroth was curious, but he knew that he had to make it over to the village. Deciding he would make it quick, he backtracked his way over to where he had seen the bright pink color.

&&&

Kadaj was making good time heading off in the direction that the old shopkeeper had told him. Already they were a good half a mile from the small village they had found themselves on. Loz kept looking around, trying to decide if the place was safe or not. Yazoo only looked straight ahead without a word, his green eyes glittering. All three of them had their motorcycles, so Kadaj figured he was in luck.

Now, if only he could find Mother, then the Reunion could come! That would make Kadaj's day if he found Mother within a few hours, but something told him that he wouldn't be reaching Midgar anytime soon.

Kadaj sighed, he knew that Mother preferred Sephiroth over him, but he wished it were different. Oh well, at least Sephiroth could return to kill his Big Brother, Cloud Strife. Kadaj resented Cloud because Cloud was not like them. He was their Big Brother, he had become Sephiroth's first puppet, but he had failed. Kadaj wanted Cloud dead and out of the way, but he, sadly had no idea where Cloud was.

And what was worse, he feared Cloud might have Mother with him. Kadaj shook his head. He couldn't become so frustrated right then. He kept his Mako green eyes on the surrounding area, keeping alert for danger.

"Hey Kadaj, when do we reach Midgar?" Yazoo finally spoke up, his green eyes flashing as he spoke in an icy cold voice.

Kadaj shook his head, and only sped up on his motorcycle. "I don't know." he replied over the sound of the engines and the whistling wind.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Cloud's eyes opened slightly. He felt very tired, and at the same time, very sick. He groaned as he opened his eyes all the way, light flooding into his world of darkness. Cloud could feel the pain in his body and it hurt. His head was still killing him and he wished all the pain would just vanish. Why did it have to be him out of all the people who had come to this strange world, why him?

_At least it isn't Tifa,_ a voice said in the back of his head. Cloud was grateful for that, but this damn headache wasn't helping him when he was fighting off enemies at all! He sat up. Flashbacks of what had happened when he had been fighting Sephiroth played over and over in his mind.

He remembered trying to his Sephiroth, but his enemy had side stepped and the blade had hit the ground. Cloud remembered a great pain slashing through his head and blinding him for a split of a second. That was when he had been stabbed. It was because of this headache that he was as wounded as he was. If it had not been there, Cloud might have defeated Sephiroth. In technical means, he had, but Sephiroth had fled and was still alive.

How he had lived through the pool of Mako was beyond Cloud. _And you killed him again, remember?_ A voice entered his head. Cloud shook his head. No, he didn't remember. In fact, he barley remembered killing Sephiroth then. Images played through his head of Aeris and Sephiroth; Tifa and Nimblheim.

Cloud hadn't even looked around to see where he was. Suddenly the image of a man with spiky black haired popped into his mind. He could hear the man shouting in his mind, "Cloud, run!" but Cloud did not know who the man was.

He blinked, his glassy blue eyes focusing on the people sitting in front of him. Cloud looked at Tifa for a moment and then blinked. She stood up and walked over to him. "How are you feeling?" she asked him in a caring, but worried voice.

Cloud shrugged, he still felt down and the pain in his head hurt. But slowly, as he began thinking about other things and memories, the pain ebbed away. Then he became conscious of the wounds that Sephiroth had gave him. The stab wound had been bandaged, but the few slashes he had received from the Masamune hadn't and seemed to have some kind of medicine applied to them.

"How long have I been out?" Cloud asked. He looked at Tifa for answers, ignoring the nurse who was now filling a small flask with something. That something happened to be red. Cloud blinked, looking away from it and staring at Tifa.

Tifa smiled, "A few hours at the most. It's dark out so don't even bother trying to go look for the others because I don't know where they are." she had answered his next question without him even speaking. Cloud nodded, not sure what else to ask, then it came to him.

"How long have you been here Tifa?" he asked herb curiously. She just looked at him and shrugged. Then she turned her head to look at the clock on the wall. It read 10: 56.

"About four hours," she estimated. Cloud blinked in surprise. He knew she had to be tired, especially with how late it was.

"Aren't you tired? Or hungry?" he asked, blurting out his questions.

Tifa smiled at him and shook her head, "No, not really. I could stay here all night if I had to." At that moment, though, she yawned, but only slightly. Tifa seemed unchanged though.

Cloud blinked, his Mako gaze looking at her. He closed his eyes and shook his head, "I can't ask you to do that." Cloud opened his eyes again, waiting for her response. As much as he didn't want her to leave, he knew she needed somewhere other than a chair to sleep.

Tifa gave him a teasing look, but her voice was stern, "You're not asking, I'll _telling _you that I'm not leaving, I'll stay in here."

Cloud sighed. He knew that he'd never win a fight against Tifa, and if he did, he must be pretty lucky. So he only looked away and laid back on his pillow. Just as he was about to shut his eyes, pain raced through his head. He winced from it, clenching his teeth together. His Mako blue eyes flashed before shutting.

An image filled his mind. It was that man with the spiky black hair. His blue eyes were kind, and beside him stood a familiar girl wearing a pink dress. She was smiling. Then, as soon as the image flashed through his mind, it vanished. Cloud's eyes opened and he tried to reclaim the picture. The girl in the pink dress…he knew that he knew her. That was Aeris, but the man she was standing beside was different. A question played through Cloud's mind as the pain from his headache began to fade.

_Is my mind making up this black-haired guy or was am I slowly forgetting everything?_

&&&

Reno sighed as he and Elena approached some stranger wearing this very strange outfit. Reno figured all these people were strange, maybe that was why people he didn't know anything about were called strangers, because they were all strange…

He took a quick glance at Elena. He felt bored and she didn't seem to be paying attention…so…maybe Reno could go find something 'fun' to do. She had her back to him and seemed to be muttering to herself, so Reno side-stepped, putting his hands in his pockets for show as he hurriedly escaped from Elena.

He headed towards a hallway and looked around, spotting tons of people walking around doing nothing in particular. Well, actually they seemed to be talking and chattering about 'classes' but Reno didn't care. Then he asked himself, _'Is this a damn school! I hate school!'_

He shrugged it off and came to the first hallway leading off into another room. Reno read the sign: 'Infirmary'. He had no business in there. So he went to the next, 'Quad', nope. Then he went to the next, 'Cafeteria'. Reno certainly had business in there! He was hungry! Evil Tseng hadn't been kind enough to order any food for his workers or himself.

Reno thought rather angrily about what Tseng could be doing then. His boss might be drinking some liquor while feasting on a chicken or turkey or something. _Nah! _Reno tossed that thought out the door. He grinned at his next thought, _Elena's not there with him. He has to miss her!_

With each thought, came an idea, and this idea was full-proof! Reno took out his cell phone and dialed Tseng's number. It rang once or twice before a blunt, "Hello?" came from the other line. "Tseng here."

"Oh, hey Tseng. I was just wondering what sort of information you needed from this Garden. All that Elena and I have figured out is that it's some kind of school." Reno responded.

He heard a sigh, "I knew that Reno. Is there a town near it?" Tseng asked, his voice monotone.

"Actually there is. But, I'm afraid I have some very bad news you're not going to like." Reno would have told Tseng what it was, if it had not been for someone coming up to him and grabbing his cell phone.

"No cell phones permitted!" the woman snapped. She placed the phone to her ear and asked sharply, "Who is this?"

&&&

Tseng glared as he heard a new voice on the phone and Reno's complaints. He answered the woman with a cold and harsh voice, "Give the phone back to my friend."

"I'm sorry but there are no cell phones permitted on campus!" the woman snapped.

"Woman, if you want me to hunt you down and put a-" Tseng was interrupted.

"Tseng, calm down and give me the phone Rufus demanded, snapping his fingers and pointing at the phone. Tseng did as he was told and Rufus ShinRa was now speaking on the phone to some woman who thought she could boss people around.

"Woman, if you took my friend's phone, you have to understand that he is not part of your school. Actually he was just telling us something very important. You see, Reno, our friend, that's his name, got separated from us when we were fighting off some monsters, and now he was giving us some directions as to which way to go to find him." Rufus's voice was calm and he tried to sound convincing, and it would have worked, if the woman had not spoken to Tseng first.

"Well whoever this Reno was talking to, threatened me!" she snarled.

Rufus sighed, there was no getting past this, but he wouldn't revert to threats just yet. "He just thought he couldn't trust you. Also he is slightly drunk, but Reno could not be in your school anyway because he is past age twenty, so please give him his phone back. We need them because we plan to be leaving this country by tomorrow."

"Oh alright, fine, you win." The woman had finally given in and had given Reno back the phone, but Rufus had hung up. Reno wasn't with Elena, that was for sure. Tseng looked at Rufus without emotion as he took his phone back.

"Now, where were we? Oh yes, the matter of any of our foes being here…"

&&&

The black haired man looked at the nearing town. Yes, it was a town. He had gotten close enough to see people walking around and a few children playing. He also noticed a tall figure standing a little over four hundred yards away. His sharp vision could make out long silver hair. He even saw a drawn sword. The sword was oddly familiar. _No…it can not be! That man is dead!_

&&&

The young woman opened her emerald eyes. She felt so stiff and unsteady. Her brown hair was braided like it always was and her pink dress was as bright as ever. Hen she opened her eyes, she saw a shadow over her. She moved her arms unsteadily as she picked herself up into a sitting position and looked up to see a tall person standing in front of her.

The sun shadowed his figure, but she knew exactly who it was. She opened her mouth to scream, but a single quiet word came out instead, "Help…"

Sephiroth stood over her, drawing his sword. It glinted brilliantly in the sunlight and he spoke in a cold voice that dripped with the pleasure of a killer's voice, "Cetra, what a pleasant surprise. I thought I killed you when I stabbed you, but apparently not, well it is not everyday that I get to kill someone twice."

The Cetra girl gave Sephiroth a look of terror, but she was unable to move. She wanted someone to come and save her because she knew that she Sephiroth would kill her without hesitation. But at the same time, she knew that she should not be there. She was supposed to be dead, but somehow, she was alive.

Sephiroth glared at the Cetra, about to plunge his sword into her body. She could tell that Sephiroth wanted to ill her, but she also realized that time seemed to slow as he brought his sword down on her. She moved her arms up in front of her face, screaming at last. She knew that she would die as soon as she came back, no one was there to save her this time. Not Cloud, not Zack, not anyone…

Just as she was sure she was going to die, she heard a loud curse word ring out through the air. Then she heard a clashing sound. She dared open her eyes and they flew open in amazement.

There he was, saving her life! She gasped with joy at seeing him, but the fright hadn't left her. She looked at Sephiroth who looked stricken by the man's sudden appearance. The Cetra smiled lightly as Zack smashed his buster sword against the Masamune, blocking one of Sephiroth's deadly attacks.

"Go the hell away Sephiroth or I will kill you where you stand!" Zack snarled, trying to hit Sephiroth. At first Sephiroth seemed as if he wanted to continue fighting, but in an instant, he jumped nimbly away from Zack and sheathed the Masamune. He shot a glare at the Cetra and growled, "You should feel lucky for him saving you, otherwise I'd have gladly killed you again."

She shuttered, knowing that Sephiroth meant that he would still try to kill her for what she had done. At least he was leaving for now because she didn't really think she could stand. How long had it been since she had walked? Years, but they remained uncounted. She had had no sense of time in death, but at the moment she didn't care about time.

Zack turned around to look at her, sheathing his buster sword as Sephiroth headed towards the town without a glance over his shoulder. He bent down to look at her, but he flinched in the process. "Are you alright, Aeris?" he asked her.

Aeris nodded, "Yeah…I think so…but Zack, how am I here if I'm…dead?" She had voiced something that had been troubling her ever since she had realized she was alive and not in the Lifestream where she should have been.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Cloud wished that he could remember who the man was, but the more he thought about it, the more his mind fragmented. The image of him was fading from Cloud's memories, and anything he thought back to in the past, didn't have the man in it. But the more Cloud thought about his past, the more he realized there were big gaping holes. He felt miserable. Tifa was sitting on the bed's edge, looking around, and then back at Cloud.

Finally Cloud couldn't help but ask, "Tifa?"

Tifa's brown eyes looked at him with questioning, "Yes/"

"I-…" Cloud didn't know how to put his questions into words. It was so confusing for him, and how would it sound if he asked Tifa if he had ever known a man with spiky black hair that hung around with Aeris? "I'm not really sure how to put this into words…but Tifa, who did Aeris always hang around with?"

Tifa looked at him with confusion, not really understanding Cloud's question. "We all did, why do you ask?"

Cloud sighed, he just shook his head. He couldn't ask her a question like that, it would make it sound as if he were going crazy. What if the man had really been someone he had just made up in his mind? What then?

&&&

Zack blinked, realizing what Aeris had said. When had she died? He wasn't sure…wait a minute, Aeris had died! "W-What?" he gasped, unable to say anything else.

Aeris looked at him with a confused expression before realization spread across her face. "You never knew did you? That Sephiroth killed me?"

Zack shook his head, confused. "But why did he kill you, Aeris?"

Aeris looked at Zack and sighed, "It's a long story…"

Zack nodded, he understood that if Aeris said it was a long story, it had to be. And he didn't have time for it at the moment. Well he might if he got Aeris to go with him, which Zack was sure she would. He still had to find Cloud. "Aeris, you want to come with me to look for Cloud?" Zack finally asked after a moments pause.

Aeris nodded, "Yeah, but Zack, before I tell you what happened to me, where were you? We all thought you were dead…" If Zack had expected any of that, he surely hadn't expected everyone to think that he was dead.

"That's a long story made short, really. The truth is, I really don't know." Zack replied, helping Aeris to her feet.

"What do you mean you don't remember?" Aeris asked him, confusion in her voice.

"Exactly what I mean. I honestly don't remember. I can't really remember much, though I know that I am best friends with Cloud, I know Tifa, I was once Sephiroth's friend, and all that other stuff up to the point when Cloud and I were going to Midgar. Then I remember being shot at, but nothing else…it's depressing really." Zack admitted. As he recited everything that he could remember, he felt the pain in his head worsen along with his stomachache.

He flinched, trying to hide it from Aeris. Zack looked at her, noticing that she seemed a little unsteady. It was clear to him that she hadn't walked in such a long while. He turned to look back at the small village and could still see the small dot of Sephiroth. Zack turned away, deciding to go straight forward, the opposite direction from the village.

"We'd better get going Aeris, and while we're walking, you can tell me what happened to you."

&&&

Reno groaned. Tseng had hung up on him! Oh well…he had to find Elena anyway, but first he wanted something to eat. He entered the Cafeteria and went over to the lunch ladies. He didn't look around him as he took a tray and got some food. They didn't seem to mind giving him some despite how much older he looked from everyone else.

When Reno went to go sit down, he saw a familiar person sitting down at a table. He gulped. It was Barret with Marlene. He sat down, his back to them and began to eat the hotdog he had gotten. He was in for it, though, because at that moment, Elena came storming in.

"RENO! You lazy slacker, you left me!" Elena snarled, grabbing Reno by the collar of his suit. Reno gagged, hunched over his food, trying to eat his hotdog as fast as he could. But because Elena was practically choking him, he was only cramming his mouth full of food and unable to swallow it. Finally he leaned back and swallow.

Then he turned around to Elena, who was glaring at him. He slapped her hand away, "Let go of me Elena!" he snapped. He stood up and took a step away from her so that she couldn't strangle him. That was when he noticed a shadow looming over him.

Reno gulped and dared look behind him. Oh boy! This just wasn't his day…

&&&

Vincent was outside and it was growing dark. He was leaning against the wall, thinking. He still didn't have an answer to why he was here. And then there was a problem. Sephiroth was here too. Was there anyone else? Reno, Tseng, Elena, and Rude were here too. What about Rufus ShinRa? And then, another thought came across his mind. If Sephiroth was supposed to be dead, did that mean that anyone dead could come back?

Vincent doubted it. He knew very well that Sephiroth never went down easily; who knew? Sephiroth could have just came back-again. He sighed, standing up straight, he headed inside. The coolness of the night air had felt good, but the warmth on the inside of the Garden was welcoming. He headed over to where Squall said they could stay at-in some empty dorms.

Vincent passed the Cafeteria, he wasn't hungry, but he guessed he could go and tell Marlene and Barret that they could go to empty dorms and stay there. As he entered the Cafeteria, he heard a loud voice. He looked around and spotted Reno and Elena. He sighed, stepping up behind Reno.

He saw the Turk turn his head to look at Vincent. Vincent's red eyes narrowed as Reno's grew large with surprise. Vincent thought about shooting Reno to get him out of his way, but he decided reluctantly against it. "What are you doing here?"

Reno shook his head, quickly moving away from Vincent, but, too bad for him, ran right into Elena. "Reno!" Elena growled, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt again. "We are on strict orders to get some information and then we are to leave!"

"Yeah…but Elena! R-Rufus is with Tseng…and Rude!" Reno choked as Elena drug him away.

Vincent blinked, unsure whether to take that as surprise or as a I-could-have-guessed thing. He looked over at Barret and Marlene and walked over to them. They were watching him and the two Turks. "Squall says that we can stay in empty dorms," he explained. Both nodded and so, with that, Vincent turned around.

His crimson cape flowing behind him, he left. He knew people were looking at him. He wasn't going to stay around in a place where people would only look at his…abnormality. He hated that. That was why Vincent swore, if Hojo was alive somewhere, he'd die, suffer like Vincent was.

Vincent headed back outside, not feeling tired even after the long day he had gone through. He didn't like this new place at all. Vincent knew that he could not go visit Lucrecia like he normally did, it saddened him. He liked to go into her cave and just talk with her. In this new place, Lucrecia had no place.

He looked up at the full moon, its brilliant light shining down on the Garden. Vincent would find a way to leave this place. He didn't know how he had gotten there in the first place, though. Then a thought entered his mind. _If any of his friends died here; they wouldn't go to the Lifestream, would they?_

&&&

Zack realized that it was getting dark fast. Aeris had told him almost everything. He felt tired again, but at least, keeping his mind off the pain he felt, had eased it slightly. Now, as they reached the mountains, he stopped. "It's getting dark. We have to stay here for the night because I don't know what kind of monsters are out here."

Aeris nodded, relieved. Zack knew that her legs must have been killing her. From what she was telling him, she'd been dead for two years. So they set up a small camp, using fire materia to make a fire. They had no tent or anything, so they'd just have to sleep outside.

For a while, Zack wondered what they were supposed to do. He had no food, nor did he carry anything for water. Aeris didn't either. Maybe they should have stopped in the town, but Zack instantly rejected it. Sephiroth had been going there, he wouldn't take Aeris there.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

The next day Squall awoke, wishing that yesterday had all been a dream. He knew it hadn't though. All the memories were too real. Balamb was still gone, and the girl, he didn't know if she was okay. He hadn't seen her in the infirmary when he had gone in there last night. Squall got out of his bed changed into his normal clothes. Then he grabbed his Gunblade and headed towards the Cafeteria for some breakfast.

When he entered it, none of his new friends were in there. Rinoa, however was, talking with Selphie. She looked up when he came over with his tray of food. He sat down, still feeling tired. "You seem tired." Rinoa commented, pointing out the obvious.

"And you don't…" Squall grumbled, eating some of his pancakes.

Rinoa shot him a look and replied teasingly, "I see someone's woken up on the wrong side of the bed today!"

Squall didn't reply. Instead he just glared at her before continuing to eat his breakfast. He noticed out of the corner of his eye Selphie leaning over and whispering something into Rinoa's ear. Rinoa laughed quietly, glancing at Squall.

Squall rolled his eyes, this was nice. Now Rinoa and Selphie were talking about him…wait-was that supposed to be a good thing, or a bad thing?

&&&

Cloud awoke, his whole body was stiff. He looked around him, cracking his neck as he did so. He noticed Tifa was asleep in the chair a few feet off. He didn't see the nurse anywhere. He blinked and looked around him, searching for the clock. He found it and saw that it said 6:07. He had woken up early…

Cloud blinked, wondering if he could stand. He flinched at the stiffness in his muscles as he climbed out of the bed. He stood up, feeling the blood pounding through his legs. At first, Cloud wasn't sure he could support himself, but he took a few steps and then he felt a slight pain in his legs. Now he knew, that he could walk, though it might be painful.

He headed towards the door, feeling rather hungry. Cloud felt the stabbing pain from where Sephiroth's katana had stabbed him, but he tried to ignore it. He opened the door, hearing many voices speaking. He knew the whole Garden was awake. Cloud stepped outside, limping over to where the Cafeteria was.

When he reached it, Cloud wondered if anyone else was in there that he knew. Cloud soon realized that a lot of people were casting him looks. He wondered why, and then he realized what a mess his hair had to be in! Or maybe it was the fact that he was all cut up…who knew?

Cloud ignored them and went into the Cafeteria. He went over to the lunch ladies and got some breakfast. "Hey Cloud!" someone called.

Cloud turned to look at the person who had called his name. He saw that it was Rinoa who had called over to him. She was sitting with Squall and Selphie. Cloud smiled lightly and walked over to their table. He sat down, "Hey," he greeted.

"You feeling any better?" Rinoa asked, blinking as she took a bite out of her bacon.

Cloud shrugged, "Depends what you mean." He looked over at Squall who looked rather glum. Cloud blinked, wondering what was up with him. "What's up with Squall?"

Rinoa only smiled at him, but she didn't respond. Instead it was Squall, "Oh nothing! It's just that Balamb has been destroyed and everyone I know is dead!" Squall groaned, his voice holding anger.

Cloud sighed, eating some of his pancakes and responded, "I know how that feels…" He sighed again and then continued, "Sephiroth, just after he found out about JENOVA and everything about him being a Cetra, went insane with his rage towards the Planet and all humans. He killed my mother and Tifa's father. He burned Nimblheim to the ground and killed everyone in it. No one except for Tifa. She almost died, she had taken the Masamune, Sephiroth's sword, and tried to kill him with it because he had killed her father. But Sephiroth had gotten it back and gave her a near-fatal blow."

Rinoa was looking at him with shock, Selphie was staring at him, Squall wasn't doing anything, but looking at his plate. "What happened then? Why didn't he kill her?" Rinoa finally asked.

Cloud blinked, "Um…well I know he went to go find JENOVA, his mother and I remember stabbing him. And throwing him in the Mako reactor but…"

"But what?' Selphie asked.

"I don't remember." Cloud responded, looking down as he tried to remember what had happened. He remember only flashes. He remember Tifa laying at the bottom of the stairs. He remembered being stabbed twice by Sephiroth had nearly dying, but nothing else.

Squall looked up at that, "How long ago was this?"

Cloud blinked again in utter confusion. How long had it been? Five years? No, seven! "I think it was seven years ago…I'm not sure…"

Cloud didn't understand. Why couldn't he remember anything past the part of Sephiroth's death? Sure, he remembered Aeris, but he couldn't remember how he had met her or anything. He knew she was dead, but he couldn't remember how she had died or who had killed her. Cloud sighed, his mind racing. Why couldn't he remember? Stress seemed to get to him because all at once, his head seared with pain. Damn! The headache was back!

Cloud really needed to learn not to stress himself…

&&&

Vincent was sitting on a bench outside. He had been out there all night. Apparently he had fallen asleep at some point in time in the early morning, but he didn't know when. He decided he'd better go get something to eat before Barret awoke and ate it all. He wouldn't like that. Vincent picked himself up and went over to the door and pushed it open.

While he made his way to the Cafeteria, he wondered how Cloud was. Yesterday, Cloud seemed to be in a lot of pain, and according to Tifa, he seemed confused about something. Vincent had gone in there last night because he had gotten frustrated about this place and knew Tifa was the only one awake. When he had gone in there, Cloud had been asleep, so after a few minutes, he had left.

He still could not figure out what their purpose was for being on this damn planet. Vincent was still frustrated about it and the few people that dared give him a funny look, his narrowed his red eyes, reaching for his gun. They backed off at that.

When he entered the Cafeteria, he found Cloud, Squall, Rinoa, and Selphie sitting there. He got himself a small breakfast and listened to Cloud say something about not remembering something. Then, just as Vincent approached them, he heard 'seven years ago'. What were they talking about that was dealing with seven years ago?

He decided to ask them as he stood behind Cloud, "What are you guys talking about?" Vincent asked, his crimson eyes flashing.

Cloud turned around in his chair to look at him. At once Vincent saw something he hadn't expected. Cloud's eyes weren't blue anymore. Instead they were a horrible green. Vincent's eyes narrowed, leaving only red slits as he took a step back from Cloud and moved to a chair and sat down. "What is wrong with your eyes?" he asked, his deep voice sounding slightly harsh.

Cloud blinked, "What do you mean?" As he blinked, Cloud's eyes became Mako blue again. Vincent shook his head, maybe he was seeing things.

"Oh nothing, I think I was just seeing things…" Vincent replied bluntly, unsure of what to say. Then Vincent noticed Squall. He was looking at Cloud and then Vincent. Vincent narrowed his eyes. "What were you four talking about?" he asked.

Cloud glanced towards Vincent and replied uncharacteristically, "Oh nothing," The way Cloud had said that told Vincent that Cloud wasn't going to tell him. He sighed and ate what little he had on his plate. He didn't have time to fiddle with Cloud's strange ways of thinking at the moment.

"How do you suppose we get out of this place?" Vincent asked after he had finished eating. He doubted Cloud would have thought of an idea, but it was worth a try.

"I don't know. I don't even know how we got here." Cloud responded bluntly, resting his head on his palm. His Mako blue eyes looked at Vincent with a dull glint of boredom. Vincent sighed again and looked back at Rinoa who was looking at him.

Vincent glared at Rinoa. He hated people looking at him and he would be damned if Rinoa started looking at him funny. She blinked and looked away. Vincent turned his attention back to Cloud, "Neither do I Cloud. I only know that I was heading to the Seventh Heaven when I found myself here, but I want out of here _now._" Vincent growled, looking around him as if indicating that he found great displeasure in being in this place.

"Why?" Cloud asked. Vincent turned to look Cloud straight in the eye. His red eyes blazed with anger and sorrow. Cloud was blind to it though. Vincent looked down, muttering, "Because Cloud, I can not speak to Lucrecia. And this place is too strange. Too crowded for me."

He looked back up at Cloud, his eyes shadowed. He looked rather haunting and as if he truly hated everything about this new world. "Oh…" was Cloud's only response. Vincent felt anger rise within him, but he didn't understand why. He wasn't mad at Cloud, was he? For what reason? For what had happened to him? It wasn't Cloud's fault, Vincent knew that, he had met Cloud only because Cloud had found him in the ShinRa basement. Maybe Vincent just felt as if he had to be mad at someone…and Cloud was the only one there. But of course, Reno and Elena were somewhere around. He could put a few bullets in-Vincent shook his head. He didn't want to put a bullet through the Turks' heads.

&&&

Kadaj sighed. This really, really sucked! He had ended up at the _damn ocean!_ He glared at it, wishing that it would just go away. It was mocking him! He swore it was! Actually Loz swore it was mocking them, but okay. "Damn! That guy lied to us and now I have no idea where we are!" Kadaj snarled.

Yazoo, who had been looking around, suddenly spoke up, "Hey Kadaj," He raised his hand to point at a cave, "There's a cave over there do you think we should go check it

out?"

Loz, who had been throwing rocks into the ocean, interrupted Kadaj just as he was about to speak up, "No, Yazoo, for all we know, there could be-"

"Shut up Loz, we're going to check it out. There might be something in there." Kadaj growled. He was the leader of the gang, so Loz couldn't boss him or Yazoo around. So what if Kadaj was the youngest? _He was_ the one Mother had chosen, right? Right? Right!

Kadaj nodded to himself and got off his motorcycle. He hid it behind a tree and motioned for the others to do the same. Loz was going to object, but Kadaj glared at him and silenced him with a swift movement, drawing out his double-bladed sword. Then Kadaj made his way towards the cave. When he made his way down the pathway and entered the cave, Kadaj was shocked.

Heat surrounded him. It felt as if he were being roasted. Kadaj only needed a few glances around to figure out that this place was full of fire and lava. They were in Fire Cave; and if they had none where they were going, they would have run into Balamb Garden and AVALANCHE, but alas, Kadaj had no earthly idea where he was.

All three of them quickly backed out of the cave. "See? I told you that cave was evil!" Loz snapped childishly. Kadaj and Yazoo turned to glare at him. Considering Loz was the oldest, he wasn't the mature one, in fact he was the most childish of them all. Yazoo was quiet and hard to tell; while Kadaj was the most mature. He was the leader and took up all the responsibilities. Kadaj did have his faults, like the other two though. He could act rather childish at times, but when he was angry, he was serious and there was no joking involved. He considered himself better than both his brothers because they did his dirty work for him. Now, he needed to find Mother for the Reunion. But he needed to find civilization first. There was one person in particular he wanted to see first. Rufus ShinRa.

&&&

Rufus ShinRa sat back in his chair, sipping some alcoholic beverage. They had rented rooms at the Inn for the night, but now, it was time for plans to be made. His eyes rested on Tseng and Rude, who were waiting for his answer. "Well? What do you think we should do? We need to find our other 'allies' before we leave this town." Tseng looked at Rufus, speaking with a business-like tone.

Rufus narrowed his eyes, "Can you be so sure that we have allies here? What if they are spread out?" His voice was smooth and had a strange twisting tone to it as if he were using someone, trying to convince them of something that was not true.

Tseng shook his head, "No sir, we cannot guarantee it. You are right, we will have to leave."

Rufus smiled lightly, twiddling his fingers, "I did not say that. I think I've met someone who can help us. You both know about Kadaj and his gang, right?"

Tseng and Rude nodded, "Yes sir, but what do we have business with the likes of them?"

Rufus's smiled widened. He glanced around him and then pulled something out of his white jacket and sat it on the table. "We have this." It was a metal box that was a pretty good size. Tseng had no idea how Rufus had been able to hide it. There were labels yellow on it that said 'SEAL'.

"Is that what I think it is?" Tseng gasped, staring at it.

"Yes, JENOVA…"

&&&

Zack awoke at the crack of dawn. He blinked, used to waking up at such an early hour. He sat up and looked at Aeris. To his surprise, she was already up, just sitting there. She was looking at him with her emerald eyes. Zack smiled, wondering how long she had been up. He stood up, grabbing his buster sword. Zack walked over to Aeris and offered her his hand. She excepted it and he pulled her up.

Neither spoke as they headed on their way across the mountains. Zack wasn't really sure what to say. Everything Aeris had told him yesterday still baffled him. How come he didn't know about any of this? Where had he been all these years? He sighed in frustration, "Aeris," he looked over her, breaking the peaceful silence, "I'm sorry for not being there to help you."

Aeris looked over at him, her facial expression sympathetic, "You don't need to apologize. It isn't your fault, and besides, I did what I had to. Sure, I hadn't expected Sephiroth to come from out of no where and stab me in the back, but at least I save the Planet. And Cloud, he came and tried to save me. He killed Sephiroth for me, and you." Aeris seemed calm about it, as if nothing were wrong.

Zack, on the other hand, found everything wrong. He should have been there for Aeris and then she wouldn't be here in this predicament. She had come so close to death just a few hours ago. Sure, Zack was relieved that he had stopped to take a look at the figure that had happened to be Sephiroth, but still. He didn't speak anymore about 'that' with Aeris, but he did ask her a few other things, "Did you ever meet Cloud's friends Tifa?"

Aeris smiled, "Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Was she okay after Sephiroth did that to her, you know, cut her?" Zack asked, feeling rather stupid. His head ache was returning steadily, but at least his stomachache was gone.

Aeris nodded, "Yeah, she's fine. She owns the Seventh Heaven at the Edge."

Zack nodded. He didn't know what the Seventh Heaven was, but he guessed he just been out of everything for the past few years since being taken by Hojo and experimented on. He shuddered at the memory of Hojo. Zack hated Hojo, but at least he hadn't let Hojo complete what he had started. He had helped Cloud escape and then…and then what? Why couldn't he remember? Why? He remembered riding in a truck to Midgar with Cloud, he remembered the Turks trying to shoot them, not much else though. What was up with him?

He felt pain in his head again and muttered a swear word just low enough so Aeris couldn't hear him. Suddenly Aeris spoke up, "Hey Zack, did you ever know that I am a Cetra?" Her voice sounded troubled.

Zack blinked in surprise, was Aeris kidding? He didn't know, so he juts played along, "No, no I didn't."

"Well…you know a Cetra can talk to the Planet. Well the Planet isn't responding to anything I ask it. I don't understand why…" Aeris sounded Serious. Zack blinked again, realizing that Aeris was dead serious and troubled. He didn't understand completely, and he didn't know what to expect.

"That's a bad thing…right? So if it is…then maybe…" Zack had had his growing suspicions about what he was about to say. He had ever since he had walked through the fields and past that village and over here. And this only proved his theory, "Then maybe we aren't on the Planet anymore."

Aeris looked up at Zack with shock, "But why? How?" He shook his head. He didn't know. "Is Cloud here?" Aeris asked at once.

Zack didn't know, but he refused to believe otherwise. He would find his friends again. If Aeris, Sephiroth, and him were on this planet, then they had to be! But Zack didn't answer Aeris because he didn't want to get her hopes up. Instead he kept his eyes on where he was going and his senses high for danger.

Aeris was still looking at him, waiting for an answer, but it soon came apparent Zack wasn't going to answer. Suddenly she jumped as the bushes nearby rustled. Zack spun around to face them, drawing his buster sword. He expected it to be a monster, but no, it was a dog.

The dog looked half-starved and it was cut up and bleeding. "Oh you poor thing!" Aeris cried once she saw what the animal was. She was about to rush forward when Zack stopped her.

"Be careful Aeris, the dog might be sick." he warned her. But regardless of Zack's warning, Aeris approached the dog. The dog wagged her tail, looking at Aeris with dark brown eyes.

Aeris dropped down next to the dog. Zack kept his buster sword out as he came up beside her. Then he noticed a collar around the dog neck. He dropped the buster sword into the leaves and looked at the collar. The name on it was faded, but Zack could read it. The name read 'Angelo'.

"Her name is Angelo." Zack stated, petting the dog lightly. Aeris was checking the dog for injuries.

"Zack, this dog is lost." she told him, looking at a scratch on the dog's neck. It wasn't deep.

"I can see that." Zack replied bluntly, grabbing his buster sword and standing up straight. He sheathed it and shook his head. His head hurt like hell now.

"Can she come with us?' Aeris begged.

"No, she could still be sick with something." Zack growled. He really didn't feel like looking after a half-starved dog when he was hungry himself. Suddenly his vision flashed. Zack blinked, his vision blue. Everything was different for a moment, but as soon as his vision changed, it fixed its self. He shook his head again, "What the?" he muttered to himself.

"Please?" Aeris begged again, using puppy-dog eyes.

Zack sighed and rolled his Mako blue eyes. The dog might run off realizing they didn't have any food anyway. "Fine, you can keep the dog, but you're looking after it."

"Of course! Besides, you have to look out for monsters!" Aeris smiled brightly at him, beaming. That made Zack feel better. _At least she's happy, I'm stuck here with this damn headache! But I can live with it, she's safe, that's all I need to know._ Zack thought and turned back to the direction they were going.

Aeris stood up, walking over to him. Angelo followed after a moment's pause. She seemed to realize that she was with friends.


	11. Part 2

Part 2-Chapter Eleven

Two days had past and it had been declared that Balamb was officially a ghost-town. Zell's parents were the only ones living there because they refused to leave the town they loved, even though it was abandoned and dead. Cloud had gotten a little better, and at the moment, he was speaking with Tifa in Nurse Janie's office.

"She what?" Cloud roared, his Mako blue eyes flashing. He was furious at the nurse. Apparently she had taken a blood sample from him without informing him and had sent it somewhere to be analyzed and had just gotten some test results back.

"Cloud, calm down. It isn't that big of deal. The reason why you are sick is because…of…well I don't really know what to call it. They said it's something to do with some kind of chemical in your blood. So either Nurse Janie means the Mako or JENOVA cells. That's what is making you sick." Tifa explained.

That made Cloud all the more angry and confused. "Is that so? Well then explain to me what is making me lose my memory!" he challenged, his voice harsh and unlike him.

Tifa drew back at his response and tone. In truth, Cloud frightened her at the moment. He _never_ blew up like this, he had always hid his emotions from everyone, but here he was yelling at her. She hadn't know Cloud was losing his memories, nor did she know what he was forgetting that could make him so mad. "I-I don't quiet understand…"

Cloud glared at her, his Mako blue eyes flashing green for an instant. Tifa was shocked as she saw the green glow. Her brown eyes widened in horror and she opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She could only step away from Cloud as he spoke in a harsher tone, "You don't understand? Of course you don't! You don't know what I'm going through with this! I can't remember anything Tifa! Soon enough I'll forget about you!"

His Mako colored eyes flared green as he glared at her. Tifa couldn't speak as she stared into the cold depths. They reminded her so much of Sephiroth's eyes…Her vision flashed and she once again relived the moment when she knelt beside her dying father. Sephiroth had killed him. He had done this and left his sword stabbed into the earth. Tifa had grabbed it, going to avenge her father's death. But Sephiroth had ended up taking his sword from her. Tifa had been helpless as he had cut her across the chest. She had been flung down the steps, bleeding and unable to stand. Then Zack had come, not Cloud. Cloud, she believed, had broken his promise, but when things had looked bad, he had come and tried to kill Sephiroth.

Sephiroth had ended up stabbing him in the chest twice with the Masamune. But Cloud had ended up bring Sephiroth to his end. But Tifa still remembered when Sephiroth had returned. Cloud had given Sephiroth the Black Materia and the Meteor was called. Aeris had tried to stop it by summoning Holy. But Sephiroth had stabbed her through the back and the White Materia had fallen off the alter. Everyone had believed that all hope was lost, but, not, Holy had come. But Holy had been too late to save Midgar. That was when Midgar had fallen.

Tifa snapped out of her trance. She looked back at Cloud, his eyes were still a blazing green, but ever so slowly they were turning a blue color again. His words echoed in her mind. He might forget about her…Those words stung like hell. The tone of voice he had used hurt her even worse. Tifa gave him a terribly sad and wounded look before walking out the door. When she was out the door, she quickly walked pat everyone, wanting to be left alone.

The horror that had spread through her whole body was fading away. She knew what had happened to Cloud. He had been a failed JENOVA experiment, along with Zack, his dead friend. Yes, Zack had been shot and killed. Maybe that was a side-affect of being a Sephiroth clone, getting the horrid monster's eye color…Tifa hoped not. The Mako blue eyes were bad enough. Cloud wasn't even a SOLDIER, he had lied to everyone about that. Tifa shook her head, trying to clear her mind. She just needed to calm down.

But Cloud had hurt her whether he realized it or not. He had wounded her more than he could ever know. Tifa hadn't planned to tell him about the blood tests but he had seen some document on it sitting on Nurse Janie's desk. He had asked her about it and she had no choice but to tell him about it. He hadn't liked it and now he was pissed off and every single one of them.

Tifa found herself heading towards the dorms. On her way there, she walked right into Rinoa. Rinoa looked at her questioningly. Tifa wondered how she must look towards the young woman in front of her. "Is something wrong Tifa?" Rinoa asked.

Tifa wasn't sure whether she should tell Rinoa, but she found herself doing so anyway, "Yeah, it about Cloud…"

"Care to talk about it?" Rinoa asked her sympathetically.

&&&

Kadaj was hopelessly lost and hungry. They had been riding along the ocean for two days and eating whatever they caught. He didn't like that one bit. But Kadaj was sure that they'd run into a town soon enough. Maybe today was his lucky day because his motorcycle had long since run out of gas.

Just in the distance, he could have sworn he could see a town up ahead. "Look, a town," he pointed off into the distance. Yazoo and Loz looked up from where they were dragging their feet in the sand, rolling their motorcycles through it. Kadaj turned to face them and saw that their faces brightened at the sight of civilization.

"Let's hurry up and get there before I die." Loz grumbled, speeding up. He used his inhuman speed to go faster than the rest and his strength to carry his motorcycle. Both Kadaj and Yazoo felt rather mad at Loz for abandoning them.

Kadaj turned to look at Yazoo, moving his silver bangs out of his face, "He'll pay for it later," he told his brother.

Yazoo nodded and replied, "Yes he will."

&&&

Meanwhile Sephiroth had went through the town, but not without any blood shed first. He had killed three men who had told him that they had seen Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo heading towards the ocean. Now he had reached the ocean and could see the impressions of his puppets' motorcycles' tracks in the sand.

Sephiroth followed it, hoping that his puppet weren't too far off, but something told him they were far ahead of him. While he was walking along the beach, he wondered how Zack was alive. He could have sworn Zack had been shot and killed. This place was strange…bringing the dead back to life. How odd.

_But what about Hojo?_

&&&

Yuffie was sitting outside, bored out of her mind. She, the Great Ninja Yuffie, had failed at finding any Materia in this whole damn place. Yeah, it sucked…and what made it worse is that Ivrine clung to her like a leech. Right now he was sitting beside her trying his best to copy her and act glum. Yuffie cast him a glance and glared at him, turning her head away. He got annoying after a while.

She sighed and stood up. He sighed and stood up. Yuffie turned to glare at him, but Ivrine knew what she was going to do and turned to glare right back at her. _Grr! This guy is so annoying! _A voice growled in Yuffie's head. Then a second voice spoke in her head, _Yeah and what makes it worse, is that he likes you! Grr! He is unworthy for the Great Ninja Yuffie!_

Yuffie spun around and headed towards the entrance. Too bad for her, Ivrine was following using the same posture she was. Yuffie was getting rather ticked by him. If he were an enemy like Coal off of _Charmed_, she would so throw a Ninja Star in his heart! Or not.

Charmed was Yuffie's favorite TV show! Except she had something against the whole Phoebe and Coal thing, but otherwise…yeah. Yuffie entered the Garden and tried to lose Ivrine in a crowded area. Didn't work. "Damn! This guy really _is_ a leech!"

"Yuffie, what are you doing?" came a voice. Yuffie quickly side-stepped away, hoping that Ivrine would stay there as she walked over to Squall. She had her begging look on as she begged profoundly, "Squall! Please tell your friend Ivrine to go away! He won't stop bugging me!" Yuffie whined.

Squall blinked, narrowing his eyes. He looked up at Ivrine and glared at him. "Leave Yuffie alone, Ivrine." Ivrine gave him a but-why? look and left.

"Thank the heavens!" Yuffie gasped with joy as Ivrine left.

&&&

Zack groaned. They had found a small town, but to his great displeasure, a lot of the houses were burned and there was a graveyard just outside of the town. Angelo was barking like mad and Aeris was staring in horror at the town. Zack could tell, by the looks of everything; Sephiroth had visited this town.

He looked at Aeris who was on her knees, looking at the whole town with horror. "He did this didn't he?" she asked him quietly.

Zack nodded, "Yeah, he did, and I don't think anyone is alive here." he looked around again, seeing Angelo barking and pawing at a door built into the side of a wall, or that was what it looked like to Zack.

Zack tapped Aeris on the shoulder and pointed towards Angelo. Aeris stood up and both of them walked over to the door. Neither knew if there was someone in there that was alive or if there was danger. Zack was ready to draw his buster sword at the slightest hint of danger. He reached for the door knob and opened it. The door creaked open.

"Hello?" Zack called, looking around. At first he didn't see anything because it was dark, but a light was turned on and a man stood there with a shotgun raised, pointing at Zack and Aeris. Zack was about to reach for his buster sword, when the man yelled, "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Suddenly a rather large woman appeared, holding a wooden spoon. She was hitting the man over the head with it. "Stop that! These two might not be like him! They could know Zell or some of his friends!" the woman snapped.

Zack blinked, and was about to speak when Aeris spoke up, "Hi, I'm Aeris, but no, I've never heard of Zell and I'm pretty sure Zack hasn't. But we need to know where we are." Aeris spoke rather quickly.

The woman smiled kindly at them, "If you pose no threat, you are welcome to stay here. But," she pointed at Zack, "that sword, I want it kept away."

Zack nodded, "No need to worry about that. I only use it when danger is-" Zack might have finished his sentence if a certain dog hadn't run into the house and jumped up onto the woman.

"Oh! Look it's Angelo!" She spoke with a surprised voice.

Zack was shocked, "You know this dog?"

"Why yes! This is Rinoa's dog! What are you doing with her?" the woman's voice was suddenly dripping with suspicion.

"Aeris found her and insisted that we keep her." Zack replied bluntly, not amused at all at the woman's sudden change of voice.

"Zack! Lighten up! This kind lady can help us! I mean think about it! If Sephiroth really did come here, then Cloud might have been here too, otherwise she-" Aeris didn't finish that sentence. Zack knew what she meant. He nodded, it was possible.

Zack turned to look at the woman, "Do you happen to know a Cloud Strife?"

The man glared at Zack suspiciously, but the woman nodded, "Yes, yes we do. He helped get rid of that horrible man with the really long sword."

Zack's hope soared, "Where is he?"

The woman looked at him strangely, "I think he went back with Squall and this guy with a cape and a woman to the Garden."

Zack's eyes became confused, but he didn't really care about the others. He needed to know where the Garden was. "So where is the Garden?"

"Just follow the road and you'll come across it."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Cloud didn't know why he had taken all his anger out on Tifa. She hadn't deserved that. He sighed, what was he supposed to do now? He knew he should apologize to her, but he had to go look for her and Tifa could be anywhere. _It doesn't matter,_ he decided and started towards the door.

As he touched the knob on the door to open it, a sudden jolt passed through his body. Cloud gasped for air as he felt his head sear with pain. For a few seconds, his vision blurred and he hunched over, feeling very sick. Then it passed. Cloud straightened up, breathing shallowly, wondering what had happened. _Is it really the Mako and JENOVA cells affecting me? _Cloud wondered and he shook his head.

He opened the door and stepped outside. He headed towards the Cafeteria, deciding to check there first. The pain in his head hadn't faded, but it had dulled. That was the only good thing about the headache, one second, it hurt like hell, and then it dulled. Cloud blinked, feeling his head. It was hot, very hot. He tried to ignore it as he walked into the Cafeteria.

He looked around but he didn't see Tifa anywhere. Cloud sighed and walked out, this place was too big. Next he went to the Quad. Cloud had skipped that because he hadn't been in the Quad yet, but he guessed Tifa might be down there. He entered it and found that it was full of planets and grass. It looked more like a small park than anything. He headed down the steps, looking for Tifa.

When he reached the end of the Quad, Tifa wasn't there either. Cloud shook his head, his mind racing. Where could Tifa be? His head hurt and he was feeling weak. Cloud sighed and hurried out of the Quad and headed towards the Dorms.

&&&

Tifa sighed, hanging over a rail. Rinoa had taken her to a secret meeting spot for people who stayed up past curfew. "So what happened?" Rinoa asked her.

Tifa looked up at Rinoa and responded, "He got mad when I told him that the nurse had taken a blood sample."

"That's not so bad, why would he get mad over that?" Rinoa asked, confused for a moment.

Tifa blinked. Why would Cloud had gotten mad if someone had taken a blood sample from him? Then a thought entered her mind, "Well…for one I don't think he wanted to know what was wrong with him. And another…well a few years ago, a scientist named Hojo worked for Rufus ShinRa. Hojo had created Sephiroth and Cloud along with his best friend, Zack, had been caught by Hojo and Hojo turned Cloud in a Sephiroth clone. I know Cloud doesn't like to think about it. Someone we all cared for died because of what Hojo had created. Cloud had been manipulated by Sephiroth and had given Sephiroth the Black Materia…"

"What's a Black Materia?" Rinoa interjected.

"It a summon Materia that is evil .Sephiroth used it to summon the Meteor that destroyed Midgar. It would have destroyed the Planet if Aeris hadn't tried to stop him. She called upon Holy. Holy is the summon from the White Materia. Well she was a Cetra so she was the only one who could stop Sephiroth because she was the last living one. And Sephiroth stabbed her in the back…" Tifa sighed as she spoke. She didn't like to talk about it either, no one did.

"What about Cloud's best friend? What happened to him?' Rinoa asked suddenly.

Tifa smiled weakly, "He was my best friend too. He died. Zack was his name, he was a first class SOLDIER. He helped us and fought Sephiroth, trying to kill him, but he failed because he was thrown into a Mako pod. Cloud killed Sephiroth. After that, Zack and Cloud were taken by Hojo, just like I said."

"Oh…" Rinoa muttered quietly, not sure what to say. "I'm sorry,"

"No, no, it's alright. Anyway, back to what we were talking about. Cloud told me something that I hadn't expected. He told me that he was losing his memory. I don't know how that is happening, or why."

"Then he said he may forget about me…"Tifa muttered quietly.

&&&

Squall looked down at Yuffie with annoyance. Now she wouldn't leave him alone. Finally he growled, "Yuffie, go away now or I will go find Ivrine!"

Yuffie looked up at Squall with horror and nodded, "Um…okay!" she darted off at once.

Squall sighed. Why did these people have to be such a bother? He was still ticked from everything that had happened in the last three days. Not one of the newcomers understood a thing about this world. Seifer was still missing and now Fuujin and Raijin were gone. Squall wasn't complaining.

Everything could be much worse, and he feared that it might just come to that. Squall sighed and walked away from where he was standing. Suddenly he noticed Cloud walking around, as if looking for someone. Squall walked over to Cloud, who looked rather miserable. "You alright?" Squall asked.

Cloud looked at him and sighed, shaking his head. "No, have you seen Tifa anywhere?" Cloud even sounded miserable.

Squall shook his head, "No, I've been trying to get Ivrine away from Yuffie and Yuffie away from me all day."

"Oh, well, will you tell me if you see Tifa?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah," Squall replied and then walked on. Cloud was too gloomy to talk too. Something must be up. Then again, he might have found out about the blood tests. Squall wouldn't have been too happy if someone had taken a blood sample of _his_ blood.

&&&

Vincent was now confined to his own little dorm. He was sitting on his bed, glaring at the wall. Why he had tried to shoot Reno in the back of the head, he would never know…Actually it might have had something to do with wanting to just get out of this place. He wanted to go back to the Planet. Vincent fingered his gun subconsciously as he stood up.

He wasn't really confined to his dorm, but he felt bored and he wanted to go see Lucrecia. Then there was the matter about Rufus ShinRa. He hadn't bothered to tell anyone about Rufus ShinRa because they hadn't seen him anywhere.

&&&

"Reno! We are going to leave right now!" Elena snarled at Reno who was sitting down on a bench eating an ice cream. "We have stayed here long enough! We were supposed to get back to Tseng and Rude yesterday!"

Reno looked up from his chocolate ice ream and sighed, "Oh alright Elena!" he groaned and stood up, walking over to his companion. Elena grabbed his sleeve and began dragging him towards the Gates.

She ailed Tseng's number and waited for him to pick up.

&&&

Tseng heard his phone ringing. He flipped it open and said, "Tseng here,"

"Hey Tseng, it's Elena. Sorry we're late. Reno here nearly got shot in the back of the head by Vincent." Elena's voice rung through the phone. She sounded angry.

"Vincent? He's here? Who else is here?" Tseng asked, glancing at Rufus and Rude. They had searched the town and found no one that they knew and Rufus was planning to go see General Caraway after Reno and Elena got back.

"Cloud, Tifa, and a few others, Barret, Red XIII, all those others except for Cid Highwind. He isn't here." Elena informed him.

"I see, well hurry back. Rufus is waiting." Tseng growled.

"Rufus? He's here?" Elena sounded panicked.

"Yes."

Suddenly Tseng heard Reno shouting, "Elena! Look out!"

He heard a scream and then gun shots. Tseng looked at his phone with confusion. Who was shooting and who had attacked Elena and Reno? "Hello?"

No answer.

"Hello? Elena, Reno?"

"Tseng, we have a problem. I'll call back later." Elena talked quickly. Tseng barley had time to ask why. He heard a dog barking and snarling, but then the phone hung up.

"What was that?" Rufus demanded, looking at Tseng confusion expression.

"I don't know…"

&&&

Cloud had checked everywhere and hadn't found Tifa. Just as he was heading outside, he saw someone in the corner of his eye. He turned to look at them and saw that it was Tifa. She was walking towards him with a hesitant aura about her. Cloud walked towards her, "Tifa, I'm sorry…I didn't mean that." he apologized at once.

Tifa smiled at him, "That's okay, I understand…I think."

Cloud nodded. He was about to say something else when he heard a gun go off. Cloud spun towards the door, realizing where it was coming from. "Uh-oh," he muttered and glanced at Tifa. "I think we'd better go check it out."

Tifa nodded and they both rushed outside. They ran towards the gate and saw a dog growling at Elena, who had her gun raised at it. Reno was looking at a girl in pink and then back at a man who was holding a buster sword.

"You're dead…" Reno muttered, looking from both the girl and then the man.

Cloud knew the girl, but the man with the buster sword was a mystery to him. He drew his own buster sword. Reno was looking around and suddenly spotted Cloud and Tifa; along with Rinoa who was yelling, "Angelo! Heel!"

The dog backed off, but she was still growling at Elena. The man turned to look at Rinoa and saw Cloud and Tifa. He sheathed his buster sword, waving, "Hey Cloud and Tifa!"

"Cloud!" Aeris shouted, beaming at him.

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Okay! I feel very generous today-despite the fact that my great-grandfather passed awaya nd his funeral was today-so I'm giving you this AND chapter Thriteen. Please review. I was kind to give you so many chapters when I had thought about not doing that and only giving you three instead of all this. Please review, I was told you don't ask because people won't review, well I'm asking because I like to know opinions whether they're bad or good. Also, I'm running out of ideas-fast. Help me out here! And for those who HAVE reviwed, THANK YOU!

-Riku54


	13. Chapter 13

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Thank you for reviewing:

Brokewind-Gets a cookie

Rosie-um...hmm...do you like oreos? Here you go

Cookiekitten-I can give you a kitten! And a cookie!

Ninamori Sakamuya-Wanna cookie? Or a Cloud Plushie? Or a Sephiroth Plushie? Tifa? Um...someone?

Oh yeah and then there was one!

Heir to the World: Hmm...Should I give you anything? Nah! I'm sure you have enough hot fudge and brownies already! (LOL the readers who read this wouldn't get it, I'm friends with Heir to the World! Well more like penpals but yeah!)

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Okay, I'm going to make Ivrine and Yuffie a couple! But I really need some ideas witht hat, help me out here, okay?

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Chapter Thirteen

Yuffie sighed. When she had left Squall, Ivrine had popped up again. She knew that he liked her, but she didn't like him, or that was what she believed. Now Ivrine wasn't doing anything to annoy her, he was just leaning up against a wall looking…at her. Okay maybe that made Yuffie a little uncomfortable.

"What do you want Ivrine?" she finally asked, unable to take the silence. They weren't around anyone because the Quad was practically empty at the time. Yuffie was sitting on the steps, looking at the scenery. She didn't turn to face Ivrine.

She heard him walking towards her. Yuffie saw the bottom off his trench coat right beside her. Then Ivrine sat down. He, like before, tried to put his arm around her, but Yuffie pushed it away. She heard Ivrine take a breath before speaking, "Will you go on a date with me?"

Yuffie looked at Ivrine, blinking. Was he serious? _No duh he's serious Yuffie! You can't go on a date with this guy, he practically stares at any woman you pass by! No, I will most certainly not except it there is no way I can do th- _"Yes, I will." Yuffie found herself saying that even though her inner voice shouted at her not to. Why Yuffie had said yes, she had no idea.

&&&

Rufus sighed. He looked at his watch and saw that it was midday already. Reno and Elena had better hurry. In the meantime, he got up from the table and went up stairs. He then entered the elevator and took a lift up to where his room was.

Rufus entered it and headed over to the stand that the TV sat on. He opened the cabinet and found the metal box in there. He couldn't lose that box, it was very important and he knew that Kadaj was looking for it.

Rufus wasn't stupid. This was JENOVA's head and Kadaj needed it to bring Sephiroth back. If Rufus had heard about the news, though, he would have realized that Sephiroth was already back just by the description on the man who had slaughter everyone in Balamb. Rufus, sadly enough, did not read the news, he was too busy too.

Seeing that the box was safe, Rufus reached into his pocket and took out his own cell phone. He needed to make a phone call anyway.

&&&

Zack hadn't expected to see Cloud so soon. He had been convinced that they'd have to search everywhere in the Garden to find him. His blue eyes looked back and Reno and Elena who were creeping away and then they vanished, heading outside the Garden. Zack let them go.

He looked back at Cloud who was looking at him with utter confusion. Tifa on the other hand had come over and hugged Zack. "But how are you alive?" she asked him, and then she turned to Aeris and hugged her too. "How are both of you alive?"

Zack was confused at Tifa's words. What did she mean? He turned to look at Cloud, who was now staring at him blankly. "Do I know you…?" Cloud asked after a moment.

Zack blinked, what was up with Cloud? "Yeah, I'm Zack, remember?"

Cloud shook his head, "No I don't."

Tifa was now facing Cloud. Zack turned to look at Tifa, "What's wrong with Cloud?" he asked her, his Mako blue eyes switching from Cloud to Tifa.

Tifa's face had become worried. She glanced at Cloud and then turned to Zack and whispered in his ear, "Something is wrong. I don't know what, but he told me this morning that he's forgetting things."

Zack blinked and Tifa drew back, shocked. "Forgetting things? Why?" As soon as he asked the question, Zack's vision flashed. He saw in blue again. Everything around him changed for a moment. He was standing on a cliff, looking at a buster sword stabbed into the earth. He turned his head and saw the ruins of Midgar. Then everything melted away and he was brought back to reality.

"What the hell?" he muttered to himself, his head hurting again. Zack turned to look at Aeris and then Cloud and Tifa, then he saw the girl who stood next to her dog, petting Angelo.

"What's wrong Zack?" Aeris asked. Zack sighed and shook his head, "Nothing,"

He looked at Cloud and said under his breath, "How can you forget?" Zack turned away from his friend, staring at the Garden. He was at a loss.

&&&

Cloud blinked. Zack, where had he heard the name Zack from again? He knew Zack, he knew he did, Zack was his friend. Cloud forced himself to think as he stood there, looking at his two friends. Images of the events of Nimblheim filled his mind. He remembered Zack laying in a Mako pod, knocked out. Then he remembered Zack; Zack had helped him escape from Hojo, right? Yeah, that was right. Cloud remembered, but not everything. Why he could only remember certain things, he didn't know. Then he remember telling Squall something when he had first met him, _"Zack, I don't know where he is. Personally, I think he's dead." _

Zack had…died? Cloud's Mako blue eyes widened as he understood. Zack was a first class SOLDIER who had befriended him. Zack was Aeris's boyfriend and he had been shot and killed. "Zack…how are you alive?" Cloud asked hesitantly.

Zack looked over at Cloud in surprise. "What do you mean how am I alive? I never died!"

Cloud shook his head, images of Zack's death flashing through his mind, "No. You were shot and killed." he persisted.

"It's true Zack. You died seven years ago." Tifa's voice was choked as she spoke.

&&&

Yuffie found Ivrine's arm around her shoulders again. She couldn't stand that, but strangely, she left him keep it there. They were still in the Quad, just sitting there. Finally, it was Ivrine who broke the silence, "So, where do you really come from?"

Yuffie looked at Ivrine and responded bluntly, "What do you mean? I come from the Planet from Wutia."

"Oh, well I've never heard of it so…" Ivrine left his sentence hanging. And then he completely changed the subject, "Want to go get some lunch?"

Yuffie blinked and then nodded. That would get Ivrine off of her! But that would also mean that would be her date with Ivrine-she hoped.

&&&

Vincent had heard gun fire from where he was standing. His cold red eyes glanced over to where he saw Cloud rushing out the doors with Tifa and Rinoa following. He wondered what they were running after, probably the gunshot. His eyes wandered over to where he saw Reno and Elena cowering before a little dog, a girl in pink, and a man with spiky black hair. Vincent's eyes widened for an instant because of shock from seeing the girl. That was Aeris and she was supposed to be dead! How was she living?

He was about to take a step forward, but he stopped himself instantly. Cloud had drawn his buster sword and was facing the other buster sword wielder. Vincent turned away, he could care less about this new person, Aeris though, he cared for in a way, but being who he was, he didn't really care for anyone but his one love: Lucrecia.

He didn't know whether to go forward or not, so he stayed put. After a few minutes, Elena and Reno had crept away after the dog was called off by Rinoa. Then things seemed to calm down. Vincent decided to go forth now. The man was dressed in a SOLDIER outfit, so for all he knew, this guy might just be an enemy.

His crimson cape caught in the wind as he walked towards them. Vincent stopped in front of Cloud, "Who is he?" Vincent demanded.

Cloud and Tifa gave him a look. The SOLDIER looked at Vincent with surprise at his appearance and shuddered. "Who is this Cloud?" the man asked, glancing at Aeris who was standing beside him and looking at the man with a weak smile.

"My name is of no importance to you." Vincent growled. His red eyes narrowed, he sensed a friendly nature around this man, but he gave way to no exception.

Tifa shook her head and sighed. Vincent glanced at her carelessly and then turned his attention back to the SOLDIER in front of him. "Cool it Vincent. This guy is Zack, he's a first class SOLDIER."

Vincent's eyes narrowed slightly and he only nodded. Then he turned his attention to Aeris, "How are you alive? Sephiroth stabbed you."

Aeris blinked and then her face broke out with worry and confusion, "I don't know how I'm here…"

&&&

Zack looked at Vincent with an eye of caution, sensing that something was evil inside of this man. He had already seen the metal arm and shuddered at the sight of it. Then he drew his attention away from Vincent and then spoke to Tifa, remembering her words, "I died…seven years ago…if my spirit returned to the Planet, how come I'm here, Tifa?"

Tifa turned to look at him and Aeris and shook her head. "We're all confused with everything. I don't know why you are here or Aeris. Just forget it for now, I'm sure you two can stay here for a while."

Zack shook his head. No, they couldn't stay here, they had to get back to the Planet, they did not belong here. "No, Tifa. We can't stay here, we have to find out how to get back to the Planet."

Tifa's eyes flashed with disapproval, "But Zack! You can't go, this is the first talk we've had in seven years."

Zack narrowed his blue eyes and sighed, "Tifa, you know we don't belong here! I'm not just going to sit around and live on this place while that monster is out there looking for Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo!" Zack had just blurted it out. He didn't know who Kadaj, Loz, or Yazoo were. But at the same time, he did, it was confusing.

"Who?" Cloud asked at once.

Zack shook his head, "Where did that come from? I don't know who they are…" he confessed at once. As he spoke, he became aware of the pain flashing through his head again as the headache continued to worsen.

&&&

Cloud was only half listening to everyone. His mind was swarming with angry thoughts. He could only remember certain things about Zack, and even as he began to remember those things, they faded back into the depths of his mind again. Cloud believed he was more than just sick. Of course he was still mad at everyone for knowingly letting Nurse Janie take a blood sample from him, and that only fed his anger towards himself.

It seemed, Cloud realized, the more angry he became, the worse the headache came upon him. He sighed inwardly, turning away from everyone. This was just too much for him. Zack, his best friend that he had forgotten even existed, was standing right in front of him. Aeris, the dead Cetra, was brimming with life and stood beside Zack, her fist love.

But as he heard Zack say that he wasn't going to stay at the Garden, Cloud saw his chance. Maybe, if he could go with Zack, then he could find Sephiroth and take care of Sephiroth with some help this time. He wasn't even thinking about Rinoa, Zell, Squall, or Selphie at the time, nor his other friends, not even Tifa, as he spoke. "If you are not staying, I'm going with you. I can't stand it being confined to this one place." Cloud was surprised at the tone of his voice. It was dark and held a strange note that was mixed with anger and determination.

He turned to look Zack straight in the eye. Zack blinked, his Mako blue eyes flashing, he nodded. "If you want to Cloud, I can't stop you." Zack replied before anyone else could speak.

To Cloud's displeasure, Tifa spoke up as soon as Zack had given his answer, "Cloud! You can not go! You're sick!"

"What do you mean 'sick'?" Cloud muttered darkly, "It isn't anything that can be cured, you know that." His Mako blue eyes flashed. His face was shadowed as he looked at Tifa with hidden rage.

Cloud turned away from Tifa. He didn't want to face her or even listen to her. Suddenly, he was feeling great resentment towards all of them. He didn't know why he was, but it was true, he didn't want to be around any of them Zack and Aeris, he felt like hanging out with them and that was what he was going to do.

"I'm going with Zack and Aeris, and no one is going to stop me." Cloud growled, his voice dripping with determination not to look at Tifa.

"Well if you're going, I'm going with you." Tifa declared at once.

Cloud shook his head, "No, Tifa, you're not. We're going to look for Sephiroth, it's dangerous, and besides, everyone needs you here."

"No one needs me here!" Tifa argued, her brown eyes flashing as she fought against Cloud's objections. She was going to go whether Cloud approved of it or not. He couldn't stop her. She wanted to help defeat Sephiroth too! She had a right, he had killed her father and destroyed her village!

Cloud sighed, he wasn't going to turn to look at Tifa and he wasn't going to argue with her. So instead, he looked over at Zack, "You guys can get some things here to take with us."

Zack didn't say anything as he glanced at Tifa and caught her eye. He shook his head, telling her silently that he couldn't object to Cloud. He understood why Cloud didn't want Tifa to go. It was the very same reason he didn't want Aeris coming, but there was no way he would leave her again. It was because he loved her.


	14. Chapter 14

Hey guys! i'm almost done with Chpater Fifteen so I'll update soon! I hope you guys like it! i never did get any opinons, oh well! i guess I'll keep Yuffie and Irvine as a couple! Oh, and i learned that I misspelled 'Irvine', it's spelled like that, not like 'Ivrine'. Oh well!

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Chapter Fourteen

Yuffie sat in front of Irvine, feeling very uncomfortable. Why the hell had she agreed to this? Why oh why had she? Yuffie sighed as Irvine kept looking at her. She tried to ignore him, but finally, he spoke up, "Yuffie, where can we find this materia stuff you like so much?"

Yuffie blinked. That was the last question she had expected. She looked at him and smiled slightly, "Everyone in AVALANCHE has some."

"Oh, so you steal it from them?" Irvine asked.

Yuffie nodded, "Sometimes, but I think everyone forgot their materia back on the Planet."

"Oh…"

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Sephiroth growled with anger as he spotted his puppets entering a town that wasn't far off. Hadn't they sensed him with him being so close? He'd strangle them for making him walk this far just to find them! He quickened his slowed pace. As soon as he got in reach, he could hear Yazoo and Kadaj talking, "Kadaj, what do you think we should do to Loz? Deprive him of food like we did last time and make him cry like a baby?"

"No, Yazoo, that was funny, but I have to find that damn idiot Rufus and get Mother."

"Why?"

"Hello! Because we need Sephiroth back!" Kadaj shouted.

Sephiroth groaned. These things that were his supposed clones were nothing more than stupid idiots! He might as well have asked help from a cat from Yazoo and Kadaj, from a crazy insane person! _But you're insane Sephiroth!_ A voice echoed through his head.

He sighed, if he were to catch his precious little puppets now, he would have to hurry.

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Kadaj was glaring ahead of him as he spoke to Yazoo. How could Yazoo be so clueless? How many times had he gone through the whole 'we need Mother because the Reunion is coming' thing? About five hundred times. Kadaj wondered if his Big Brother had it, something told him that Cloud, the black sheep, did not have what he was looking for. Something told him it was Rufus ShinRa, but he had no idea where to find Rufus.

Suddenly a cruel thought entered his mind. Kadaj pictured his Big Brother dying by his blade. That would be so much fun to kill his Big Brother who wasn't like him. Cloud was different and needed to be _disposed _of. Now how was Kadaj supposed to kill him? Send Shadow Creepers after him and get his heart torn out? No. Too quick of death for Kadaj…

"Hey Kadaj," Yazoo spoke up quite suddenly, interrupting Kadaj's thoughts.

"What?" Kadaj growled, glancing at his Brother.

"Who's that behind us?" Yazoo turned to look behind him and pointed with a gloved hand.

Kadaj turned to look at who Yazoo was pointing at. As soon as he saw the fast approaching man, Kadaj stopped and let go of his motorcycle. His Mako green eyes locked with the distant Mako green eyes and Kadaj knew. "Yazoo…I don't think we'll be needing Mother now…" His voice was quiet and full of disbelief.

"Why? Who is that?" Yazoo asked, confused. He wasn't like Kadaj who could sense things about someone just by looking at them.

"It's him, Sephiroth…" Kadaj breathed.

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Sephiroth continued to give Kadaj death glares as he approached him. Kadaj and Yazoo had both stopped and were waiting for him. When he got within ten feet of them, he noticed Loz wasn't with them. He'd slit Loz's throat for leaving them! He was angry at all three of them, but hey, if he got to kill Loz, the world would all rejoice.

When he was five feet in front of them, he stopped and spoke in a cold, harsh voice, "Where the hell do you think you are going?"

"T-To this town to find L-Loz…Don't hurt me Sephiroth!" Yazoo cried.

Sephiroth looked down at Yazoo with narrowed eyes, but decided to ignore him. "Come on, let's go find Loz so I can kill him!" Sephiroth commanded, taking the lead to the town. As they go close enough to see it, Sephiroth realized that the town was Balamb, the one he had destroyed. "Well, well, well, guess what guys, we get to go kill Strife after all!" he said.

Then Sephiroth, with inhuman speed, rushed towards the town, only to find Loz sitting, there, eating a piece of pie. "LOZ!" Sephiroth roared, drawing the Masamune. Loz looked up and his eyes widened. He dropped the piece of pie and coward before Sephiroth.

Sephiroth glared at him and raised the Masamune. He brought it down on Loz, careful to make it a clean cut.

&&&

Irvine had taken Yuffie over to the Training Center and into the Secret Spot where many students hung out. There were a few there now, chatting with one another. Yuffie wondered why Irvine had taken her here as she leaned over the edge of the railing, her stormy gray eyes looking at the few. Irvine was leaning over the railing with her, speaking to her, "So, do you like the view?" he asked her.

Yuffie nodded, "Uh-huh, it's nice here." She turned to glance at Irvine and saw that he was looking at her, smiling. She turned her head away, blushing slightly. '_Stop it Yuffie! You don't like him! You know that!'_ her mind told her, but Yuffie knew she did. At first, she had been unsure, but now she knew, she liked him.

&&&

Kadaj stared at his fallen brother, but then he felt no emotion. He had cared for neither of them and now that Loz was gone, at least there could be peace. He turned to look at Sephiroth, "Where do we go now?" he asked the silver-haired warrior.

Sephiroth didn't so much as glance at Kadaj as he responded, "To kill Strife and his little friends."

Kadaj felt a smile play on his lips as he nodded, reaching for the blade on his back. He couldn't wait for his enemy to die.

&&&

Yuffie became even more uncomfortable as Irvine move closer towards her, glancing at her every moment or so. She could only imagine what someone like Irvine would want… 'Is he really going to try that? On our first date?' Yuffie hoped not.

Irvine stopped when he was just inches from her and leaned back over the railing and sighed, "Yuffie," he began, "do you want to go back to your planet?"

Yuffie blinked, staring at Irvine. Now that he mentioned it, she wasn't sure. She didn't really want to answer him, in case the answer was 'yes' because that might hurt his feelings. But Yuffie wasn't about to lie either. She took a breath and then replied, "Yeah, I guess I do…my whole life is on the Planet."

Irvine turned to look at Yuffie and nodded, "Okay, so if you ever go back, can I come?"

Now Yuffie's mouth opened slightly. That was the last thing she had expected. She could only stare at Irvine until she found her voice, "Are you sure you want to? What about everyone here?" She thought Irvine would miss everybody just like she missed everybody on the Planet that had not come. Like Denzel, or Cid. Well, she hoped Denzel hadn't come, no one knew where he was.

"Yeah, but I want to see your world. What's it like and everything…" Irvine let his voice trail off.

"But how will you ever return here?" Yuffie asked, confused.

Irvine looked at her stormy eyes and smiled, "I don't have too."

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There you go!


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen 

A man with glasses and a white lab coat sat in a chair, glaring at the wall. He had been snatched from his latest research! His lips twisted into a snarl, he felt like hurting someone, killing them even. He was a wicked man who had done many bad things. He had killed and tortured many people because of his experiments. He didn't remember dying though, he only knew that he had not yet finished everything he had had planned for the JENOVA Project.

Now, he had himself another test subject, and to make it more interesting, it was one of 'his' little friends. Hojo knew that the boy knew Cloud, his failed JENOVA-experiment. Now, he turned in his spinning chair to a thin, long desk that was hooked into the wall. He picked up a single needle full of a clear liquid.

His dark eyes turned to land on the boy that was Denzel. Denzel was looking at him with horror as he coward down before Hojo. That made Hojo feel glee despite his rage. He pushed the end up of the syringe, squirting out a little bit of the liquid to show that it worked and bent down before the boy.

Denzel raised his arms in front of his face, curling into a ball, defenseless against Hojo. Hojo chuckled at the boy's efforts as he moved Denzel's arm out of the way and held them there. Then he brought the needle to the boy's throat and stabbed him with it, injecting the contents into his new lab rat.

Hojo watched Denzel for a moment until the liquid entered his bloodstream and the boy crumpled at his feet. He nodded, knowing exactly what he was doing as he went over to his desk and placed the bloody needle on it. Then he sat down in his chair and grabbed a test tube of thick green liquid and took another test tube with a red substance in it and poured them both into a small bottle.

Hojo shook it up, mixing the red substance with the green substance. His anger was slowly fading as he imagined what his creation would become if he could complete it this time. He then filled the syringe with the liquid, not bothering to clean the bloodied needle. Then Hojo walked back over to the unconscious Denzel and grabbed his arm. Holding it tightly, he placed the needle on Denzel's vein and injected him with the slightly thicker liquid.

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Cloud had left with Zack and Aeris after a few hours of arguing with Tifa and trying to find supplies. Zack hadn't wanted to leave Tifa behind so crestfallen, but if Cloud wouldn't let her come, he wouldn't interfere. He had asked about many of Cloud's new friends because he did not know any of them. Zack hadn't met Barret or Red or anyone, but he had listened to Cloud.

He hadn't told anyone yet that he felt rather sick, but he had got some medicine and it was in a pack that was lung around his shoulder along with many other supplies. They traveled in silence for a while, Zack remembering Squall instructions to be able to leave this small island. They had to go back to Balamb for that.

Night was coming fast and Zack had considered stopping to make camp, but he never did. He had to find Sephiroth before the day was over; he just had to! Zack wanted revenge because Sephiroth had hurt Aeris, he had hurt Cloud, and countless others. And on top of all that, he had betrayed Zack and had nearly killed him.

"Zack, can we set up camp for the night, I don't want to go to that ghost-town and spend the night there." Aeris complained, her emerald eyes scanning the area.

Zack looked over at her and was about to speak up, when Cloud growled, "We're going to Balamb, no stops." Cloud sounded kind of strange to Zack. Zack turned around to face Cloud, stopping almost at once. He took one glance at Aeris and then his mind was made up.

"Cloud, Aeris wants to make camp here. I say we make camp, I don't want to encounter any enemies right before it gets dark and be without a camp anyway." Zack's voice was stern. He could see the fire behind Cloud's eyes. Cloud wanted to find Sephiroth, even if it meant crossing the ocean. Zack still hadn't told Cloud that he had seen Sephiroth heading towards a village when he had found Aeris, and Zack sure as hell wasn't going to tell Cloud now. As much as he wanted to find Sephiroth, Zack was still having a little shock in him knowing that he had died and not even remembered it.

Cloud stopped, looking at Zack before turning his gaze away and nodding. They began setting up a camp, Aeris had went to the forest to gather some firewood while Zack and Cloud set up the tents they had just bought. It didn't take long and soon Zack was sitting down, resting against a tree, waiting for Aeris to return. His mind was swarming with everything he had been told today. He felt like a ghost walking among everyone now that he knew; Zack hoped that the feeling would leave him.

Then there was the constant headache in his head that would not leave him alone. He sat there, staring up at the sky, not speaking as night came quickly. Zack didn't know how long he sat there, just staring at the sky, admiring its beauty, but before long, he heard footsteps coming their way. He turned his head, blinking his Mako blue eyes. Aeris came up, carrying an armload of firewood. She turned to him, dropping the wood in the middle of the camp, and then she spoke, "Will you help me get the rest of the wood back there? I found a lot."

Zack nodded, picking himself up. He cast a glance over at Cloud, who was looking at nothing in particular. Zack noticed Cloud had a small white bottle in his hand, but he didn't know what it was. He turned away and followed Aeris to go get the wood. She lead him to a large pile that would make a good fire. He got most of it while Aeris got the rest and then they headed back to camp. Zack dropped the wood in the spot where Aeris had dropped her armloads and glanced back at Cloud, noticing that the bottle was now sitting out beside him.

Cloud, though, seemed to be asleep. Zack sighed and shook his head, and helped Aeris make a fire. Once the fire was built, Zack went back over to where he had been sitting earlier and sat down. Aeris was sitting beside the fire, enjoying the warmth of it. He sighed, feeling the ache in his head. How he longed for it to just go away, but it wouldn't, and so Zack would try to ignore it the best he could. Closing his eyes, he thought back to when he and Sephiroth had been going to Nimblheim. Sephiroth hadn't been the insane, bloodthirsty person he was now, he hadn't been an enemy. Zack opened his eyes and looked at Cloud, wondering what had gone on while he had been dead for all those years.

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Cloud had taken some of the medicine, but apparently, he had taken way to much because he was knocked out cold from it by the time Zack got back. While he was sleeping, Cloud saw an image of Sephiroth in his mind. Sephiroth was glaring at him, holding the Masamune. Beside him stood a silver haired teenager, holding a double-bladed sword. Then a man about twenty or nineteen stood beside the shorter-silver-haired teen, his Mako green eyes flashing. Then, on Sephiroth's other side, stood a man with longer silver hair, he held a gun, his finger on the trigger.

"_Puppets, they are all remnants of Sephiroth, just like you were…"_ a voice echoed through his mind. Cloud blinked, wondering who had spoken, but he did not take his eyes off of the clones of Sephiroth and Sephiroth himself. Just as Sephiroth turned around, the images faded and were replaced with pictures of Denzel. Denzel looked frightened and was staring with wide eyes, at something Cloud couldn't see. Cloud blinked in surprise as a trickle of blood suddenly appeared on Denzel's neck. The boy flinched, but then, quite suddenly, he slumped over, unconscious. Cloud wanted to help Denzel, but when he tried to move, he found that he could not. He could only watch as Denzel's image faded and was replaced by a laughing man. It was someone Cloud despised and hated more than he did anyone-well almost.

Hojo was wearing a white lab coat and was laughing with his harsh voice as he seemed to grab something off of something that Cloud couldn't see. Then Cloud noticed that it was a needle full of Mako. He blinked in shock, wondering if it were possible. -Had Denzel ended up somehow with Hojo?

"_You must save your friend Cloud, but beware of him."_ The voice came again, sounding rather grim. Cloud blinked, wondering still, who was talking, but this time, when he did try to speak, he found he could not. What was happening? He didn't have long to think about I, though.

Then Hojo's image vanished only to be replaced by Rufus ShinRa, Tseng, Rude, Reno, and Elena's images. They were all sitting down at a table talking. Cloud couldn't hear their words, but Rufus had suddenly reached under the table and took out something. Cloud blinked, it was a metal box. He wondered what Rufus had in the metal box, but the image faded and this time it was replaced by someone Cloud didn't know.

It was a teenager about eighteen. He was wielding a blade like Squall's. He had blonde hair and he wore a white trench coat. He was smirking at something. Cloud noticed two others behind the man. One was a girl with a patch over one of her eyes. She had silver hair and was holding a blue disc. Then there was a dark-tan colored teen that had a lot of muscle. He had very short black hair and was glancing from the blonde-headed man to the silver-haired girl, his face angry looking as he switched his gaze to back in front of him.

"These three are Seifer, Raijin, and Fujin. You've seen Raijin and Fujin before. They are friends with Seifer."

Cloud's eyes opened slightly. He blinked, opening his eyes all the way and looking around him. He felt light-headed and rather sick. He saw Aeris looking at the fire, poking it. But at the sight of movement, she looked up and she smiled slightly at him, and then looked back down at the fire. Cloud noticed Zack, at first he had thought Zack was asleep, but every so often, Zack would open his eyes and glance at Aeris.

Cloud didn't say anything as Zack looked at him, instead, he turned his attention down to the aspirin bottle laying on the ground a few inches from his hand. Cloud grabbed it and stuck it in his pocket. When Cloud tried to pick himself up, he found that he was way to dizzy to walk straight, so he sat back down, feeling, if possible, sicker. Well that was what he got for taking an overdose of medicine by accident.

His head was still hurting, but not as bad, that was good-sort of. He still wished he knew exactly _why_ Mako made him sick, but it didn't seem to be affecting Zack, nor had it effect Sephiroth, or Cloud thought it hadn't. _Why is it only me?_ He wondered, looking at Aeris. She was now looking at Cloud questioningly, "Are you alright Cloud?" she asked him suddenly.

Cloud blinked, surprise flooding through his body, but he kept a straight face as he nodded, "Why?" he asked, wondering if she could see the pain he was feeling. Aeris just continued to look at him, and suddenly, Cloud was aware of Zack looking at him.

"Just wondering, you look as if you have a headache or something, like Zack." Aeris responded, glancing over at Zack, who had turned to look at her before closing his eyes again.

Cloud was surprised at her response. So he wasn't the only one with a darned headache…it didn't really matter anyway. He knew what was wrong-sort of-and the headache wouldn't go away, but maybe there was something that could make him lose the stomachache he had from taking so much medicine. Cloud doubted it, so he just sat there, shrugging at Aeris before switching his eyes on the darkened forest. Night had fallen now and the fire was getting lower every second. Before long, Cloud knew that he would have to go to his tent and sleep. He suddenly felt so tired, but he didn't really think about it.

Earlier, he had been so determined to reach Balamb and track Sephiroth from there. But he knew they were getting on a train to cross the ocean, that didn't bother him too much, but he'd have rather searched the whole island first. This Cloud saw the images of the two silver haired teenagers and the one who was about twenty. They were remnants, so that would mean he had more enemies.

"Hey Zack, where are we going again?" Cloud asked, looking at his black-haired friend. Zack opened one lazy eye and responded, "First we're going to Esthar. Squall told me he had some friends that lived off that way named Laguna, Ward, and Kiros."

Cloud blinked, and then nodded, not saying anything else as he picked himself up, feeling much steadier on his feet, he entered his tent and tried to get some sleep. But sleep didn't come easy to him because he kept seeing images of Denzel's terrified face, Hojo, and then his six news enemies: Raijin, Fujin, Seifer, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. It was unknown to Cloud that Loz was already dead though. And then he had a few other enemies still: Rufus, Tseng, Reno, Elena, Rude, and Hojo. Too many enemies for three people to handle. Maybe he should have let Tifa come after all…but then he scolded himself for thinking that.

It was too dangerous for Tifa, he only wanted to protect her, but deep down he knew that she would be just fine with them. He sighed, looking at the highlight of the fire through the thin material of the tent. He could see Aeris get up and walk over to the group of shadows where Zack was sitting. At least he had company…Cloud shut his eyes and tried to go to sleep.

&&&

Kadaj and Yazoo trailed behind Sephiroth. They hadn't spoken since Sephiroth had told them they were going to kill Cloud, their Big Brother. Now that night was upon them, they wondered when they would reach the Garden. Kadaj in particular was quite, his Mako green eyes flashing as he looked at Sephiroth. Something told him to find Mother, that he _should not _be traveling with Sephiroth. To him, Sephiroth was dead, but here he was, walking and breathing, and as deadly as ever. Kadaj resented Sephiroth in a way.

&&&

Squall stood next to Rinoa, who was just standing there, not speaking. He was rather bored at the moment. He hadn't been on any SeeD missions in a while. Maybe he should go ask but Rinoa had leaned over on him, preventing him from moving, or else she would fall. He sighed, "Rinoa, do you have to do that?"

"Yes," was Rinoa's short reply. "Why do you think Tifa wanted to go with Cloud so much, I mean, not just because she likes him, but why in general?"

Squall looked down at Rinoa and shrugged, "How am I supposed to know?" he asked her, not really caring. He didn't know these people, and at the moment, he felt nothing towards them only because of what they had brought with them. He had already dealt with too much trouble within the last year. Defeating the Sorceress from the future had been hard enough, and now he had to deal with Sephiroth. Maybe he should move the Garden…if Cid would let him.

Then he could move it all the way down to Centra, that way no one would ever bother them. Live in a desolated area like the Garden in the mountains where Selphie came from. But then where was the point of calling it Balamb Garden? What was the point of calling it Balamb Garden now? Galbadia Garden had been named after Galbadia and that city still existed, but Balamb's capitol was gone. Why was he even thinking about the past? He usually kept that behind him-Ellone had done enough fiddling around with his mind!

"Because you've talked to Cloud more than us." Rinoa replied matter-of-factly.

Squall shrugged, wishing she would get off of him. Yes, he was still in a sour mood.

&&&

Hojo looked down at Denzel. He couldn't wait to see the outcome of just the beginning of his newest experiment! Denzel had woken up after a few hours and his blue eyes were a dull shade of blue and less emotion shown in them. The Mako in Denzel's veins hadn't poisoned him, that was good. Now Hojo had yet another needle that contained some of Sephiroth's DNA. It was mixed with JENOVA cells and a type of fluid that seemed contain some sort of magic. He grinned, approaching Denzel, who was staring at the needle in Hojo's hand. "Stop…" Denzel uttered, his voice weak.

Hojo smirked at the boy's helplessness as he injected another needle into him. "Don't worry, I will when I'm done," Hojo told him without any emotion in his voice, though he felt rather excited that he had still had all of his Mako samples and JENOVA cells even though he was no longer on the Planet.

* * *

Evil Hojo! Oh well...I never really liked Denzel anyway. I'M EVIL! Yay!

Okay, hope you guys like this chapter-updating as soon as I can!


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

_Rain poured from the sky, flooding the streets. Cloud blinked, looking out the window with interest. He was so bored because he couldn't go to Aeris's church because Tifa had strictly told him that he would not go outside until it quit raining. He had thought about going out anyway, but it seemed that Tifa was watching him every second. Maybe he really was going out to Aeris's church too often…_

_He sighed, standing up straight, he went downstairs. He found Tifa fixing a drink for one of the customers. He could hear them talking about something. 'Probably the whether,' he mused, making sure she was keeping her attention on the customer. He slipped quickly out the door and sidestepped away from the door so she couldn't see him and sighed with relief. That was rather easy now that Tifa had opened the bar. Now to find his motorcycle._

_Cloud headed around back of the bar and spotted his motorcycle that, to his dismay, was out in the rain. There were two people trying to break the chains that he kept around it. Cloud sighed, feeling so bored that he couldn't even make himself angry. Too bad he didn't have his buster sword with him…_

"_What are you two doing with my bike?" Cloud growled, looking at the two guys. They looked drunk-really drunk._

"_Why dis here bike is what we're goin' ta sell at da-" the first man started, his speak so slurred that Cloud had trouble understanding him._

_The second guy slapped the drunk man in the back of the head and scowled, before looking up at Cloud. "Oh, srry 'bout dat, we didn't know dis was your bike. Let's go Jimmy," Cloud blinked, looking at the two drunkards as if they were crazy-which they really were but that wasn't the point. _

_He went over to his bike and looked at it making sure it wasn't damaged. No, the chain was nearly broke it two though, but nothing else. Cloud ignored the rain as he grabbed the keys out of his pocket and was about to start the engine when he noticed Vincent walking through the rain, heading towards the Seventh Heaven. He blinked with surprise, and then he noticed Red sitting outside the door in the rain, looking quite content. Barret was just coming up to the Seventh Heaven with a bag in his hand. That was most likely a present for Marlene. _

_Then he noticed Yuffie was speaking with a drunkard and taking gil off the guy. Cloud shrugged, AVALANCHE was always around, but they never really were in just one spot like this. He jumped on his motorcycle, staring it. Cloud ignored them as he raced past them. Vincent had turned to look at Cloud, his piercing red eyes flashing. Yuffie had glanced at him before grabbing a red materia from the man and sneaking away, a grin on her face. Tifa, who had obviously heard the motorcycle, came outside, scowling at Cloud, but her voice was cut off by the loud clashing sound of thunder. Before any of them could speak, lightning struck the ground, just where Cloud had been seconds before._

_Cloud hit the brake on his motorcycle and turned to look at the scorch mark on the ground before his vision blurred. He could feel himself falling off of his motorcycle. Pain seared through his body, his blood felt like liquid fire, burning him from the inside. Then his vision went black._

Cloud's eyes snapped open with shock. He sat up, looking around him. His head hurt horribly and he bent down, clutching his head. He ground his teeth together, wishing the pain would leave him. His mind flashed.

_Green waves of the Lifestream coursed steadily around the Planet. Aeris's spirit took form and there she stood, standing next to Zack, Sephiroth, and Hojo. Their images faded from the Lifestream, along with their spirits. In their place, a black shadow lingered._

He shut his eyes as the pain grew even more intense.

Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz were headed on their way to Rufus ShinRa's place. Kadaj looked very angry about something, Loz looked rather upset, Yazoo's face was unreadable. Just as they were reaching the place where Rufus stayed, a wave of green washed over them. When the green vanished, there was no trace of Kadaj, Loz, or Yazoo.

Cloud felt his eyes watering from the pain he felt. How were the images supposed to help him? He opened his eyes, the pain ebbing away. Well, at least he now know how he had gotten here-sort of. He moved the thin blanket that had come from the tent away from him and climbed out of the tent, wiping away the tears that had threatened him. He was surprised to see that Zack and Aeris still had not woke up, so he went over to last night's wood stock and grabbed some to make a fire.

The heat bounced off the flames as Cloud struck up a fire. He flinched at the sudden wave of heat, feeling the intensity of the flames. Cloud recovered at once as he went over to his tent and reached inside. He grabbed a pack that was full of supplies and took out something to eat. Cloud noticed that it was hot dog. He shrugged, finding a stick and stuck it on it.

After Cloud had finished eating, his head still hurt terribly and every time he moved his head, he would flinch at the pain. Aeris and Zack were just getting up as Cloud took down his tent. "How late did you two stay up last night?" Cloud asked, looking at both of them.

Zack shrugged, "I don't know," Aeris, however, looked away and was getting something out of a backpack. Cloud turned away, flinching at the movement of his head, feeling the pain stab at him.

"Let's go," Cloud ordered. HE had finished packing and wasn't even thinking of them as he stood up, slinging his pack around his shoulder. Zack and Aeris, however, looked at Cloud with confusion. "But we haven't even eaten yet, Cloud, much less packed." Aeris objected at once.

Cloud felt anger wash over him. It had come out of no where, just as the stabbing pain in his head had. The pain grew, but for a split of a second, Cloud seemed immune to it as he snarled, "Well you should have woken up earlier!"

Aeris drew back in alarm and shock at the tone of Cloud's voice, staring at him with wide emerald eyes. Zack, however, looked at Cloud with anger, but quite suddenly, he noticed the color of Cloud's eyes. It was a green color, a harsh, angry green color. His eyes narrowed as his mind flashed back to an image of Sephiroth. It was the color of Sephiroth's eyes. Zack felt hostility coil up within him like a snake, but it faded as soon as Cloud dropped to his feet, clutching his head.

Stabbing pain blinded Cloud. It was worse than when he had woken up, much worse. He felt his insides go numb as he kneeled in the dirt, his teeth clenched together and his fingers digging into his hair. He shook his head in fury and pain, trying to get the one image that stuck in his mind, out. Cloud saw 'his' haunting green eyes in his mind. He could feel rage flooding through his body. Then, all at once, everything stopped and Cloud dropped into the dirt below, out cold.

&&&

Sephiroth smirked. He knew where Cloud was now, but heck, he didn't have to kill his puppet now. He green yes flashed with a torturous gleam. Strife was his puppet, and that meant that he could manipulate his little puppet anyway he wanted to. He could make Cloud kill his friends, hurt the innocent, or worse-kill Tifa. Heh-heh, what a fun sight that would make! Another one of Strife's girlfriends dead! He laughed at the idea, not even bothering to look back at his other two puppets.

He stopped, and turned around. He knew where Cloud was going and everything. Sephiroth's Mako green eyes glowed in the morning sunlight as he made his way back to Balamb, rushing to get to the train. He knew it still ran by, regardless that everyone in that town was dead. Kadaj and Loz were quick, but they were no where near as fast as the ex-General.

&&&

Tifa was worried for Cloud. Very worried, he had not been himself a few times before and he was sick. Also she remembered Squall talking about so many monsters out there. She knew she shouldn't worry herself, but she did. Tifa felt so angry at Cloud for just leaving her here at the Garden. She had nothing to do here, she wanted an adventure so bad.

Tifa sighed, looking at Vincent, Marlene, and Barret. They were all sitting around, bored as she was. Yuffie, though, was no where to be seen. Tifa wondered where the ninja had snuck off to now. Then she remembered Yuffie telling her something about Irvine last night. Maybe she was with Irvine again.

&&&

In fact, Yuffie was with Irvine. They were in the Cafeteria eating breakfast. Yuffie was still uncomfortable with Irvine putting his arm around her shoulders, but after she had told him to stop it, he had. Now she was eating, not really having anything to say. Irvine, though, was a different story. "So, Cloud left, huh? Why did he leave?"

Yuffie sighed, shaking her head. If anything she really, really disliked about Irvine, was that he asked too many questions… "Yes, he left last night to go with Zack and Aeris to find Sephiroth and kill him."

"Where did they go?"

"To Esthar."

"Why Esthar?"

"To find Laguna, Kiros, and Ward."

"But they aren't there anymore."

"What! Where are they?" Yuffie panicked at once.

"How should I know? Last I heard, Laguna was looking for Ellone, who had went back to Winhill. Maybe they went back, but I don't know. You better hope they did go back." Irvine said, looking at Yuffie with suspecting eyes.

* * *

LOL! Poor them...I dunno what I'm gonna do...hm...well, i updated as soon as I could-which was five second later so be happy about it cause my school is about to start againa nd the updates aren't going to be as requent-srry! And to think, I'm NO WHERE near done with this fan fic... 


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen 

Cloud felt as if he would never move again. His whole body felt heavy and he couldn't move without feeling some sort of resistance in his body. His Mako eyes opened slightly, taking in the bright sunlight. He shut them at once, groaning. He rolled his head to the right and opened them, the sun not shining directly in his eyes this time. He could just make out the hazy figures of Aeris and Zack. Aeris seemed to be coming closer to Cloud, but everything was so blurred, he couldn't really tell until she was standing right next to him. "Are you alright, Cloud?" Aeris asked, her figure blocking out the sun.

Cloud blinked, shaking his head slightly, trying to get his vision to clear, but that only sent pain through his head. "Ugh…how long have I been out?" he asked Aeris, flexing his fingers, trying to regain feeling in them. He felt pain seize his arms from the rush of blood flowing in his veins, but he ignored it and waited for an answer from Aeris.

"Um…only a few hours." Aeris responded after a moments pause. Cloud, after the pain had vanished from his arms, sat up, blinking. Slowly, his vision was becoming cleared and sharper. He noticed that he was laying on a blanket in the middle of the forest. He yawned shutting his eyes before opening them again and looking at Zack. Zack was not looking at him, instead he was looking at the ground, fiddling with a leaf.

As Cloud sat there, his mind became clearer and suddenly, he realized that he was missing something. The weight of his buster sword was gone. "Zack, where's my buster sword?" Cloud asked his friend. Zack didn't look up. "Zack?" When Zack only kept looking at the ground, not responding, Cloud turned to look at Aeris, flinching, his Mako eyes flashing from the pain and questioned her. "Why isn't Zack answering me?"

Aeris frowned and turned away from Cloud and went to sit down beside Zack. Cloud blinked, okay now Aeris wasn't going to talk to him…fine, two could play at that game! Or not…Cloud felt something attack his very being, pain flaring through him, but Cloud reached inside his pocket and dug out the aspirin bottle. He twisted it open and swallowed three pills at once.

"_Damn this headache! It won't leave me alone for a second will it?"_ Cloud raged inside his mind. He laid back down on the blanket, raising his hands above his head and resting his head against them. What Cloud really,_ really_ hadn't expected was a reply.

"No," 

Cloud sat up, his eyes wide. He looked around, wondering if anyone had said anything. Zack and Aeris seemed to be quiet, but then Cloud heard faint whispers. He ignored them, figuring they couldn't have spoken. When he saw no one else around, he sighed, maybe he was just hearing things…

"**Oh, no, you are far beyond hearing things, Strife. Heh, you're such a fool for going with your friends. It would have done you better to just have stayed at the Garden-or better yet, back at home where you belong. Now, here I wait for you, heh-heh. I can't wait to see you again, Cloud."**

Cloud blinked, the harsh voice echoing through his mind. His blood ran cold as he realized who was speaking to him through his mind. He had no idea that Sephiroth could do that, but anything was possible-especially if you were dead. "Shut the hell up…" Cloud muttered aloud, glaring at the ground.

Zack, who had heard Cloud, looked up from where he was sitting. He stood and walked over to Cloud. Cloud paid no heed as he continued to solely concentrate on Sephiroth's voice.

"**I wonder what it feels like to hurt a friend…I wouldn't know, I have no friends Strife, well if you exclude you from that 'none'. You're a great friend for someone who willing gives themselves to my control! Ha ha!"**

"You're rambling on pointlessly…" Cloud muttered, not realizing Zack was standing there.

"And you are talking to yourself," Zack commented. Cloud looked up, his eyes looking at Zack's face. Zack looked rather angry or upset about something. Cloud hadn't thought anyone was listening to him, otherwise, he would have kept quiet. "I see you're talking, why wouldn't you talk earlier? Where's my buster sword?"

Zack's Mako blue eyes only hardened. "You mean you don't know?" Cloud shook his head, lost. "It's in my possession now and you're not getting it back until I say so."

"Why?" Cloud asked, feeling very confused. In the back of his mind, he heard fading laughter before pain flashed through his mind and then subsiding. He had shut his eyes when the pain had come, and now when he opened them again, he was shocked to see Zack standing beside Aeris. They were packing camp, keeping a close eye on him. Why were they acting so strange?

&&&

Seifer, Raijin, and Fujin stood in front of Rufus ShinRa, looking at him with emotionless eyes. Rufus, however, was staring at them all, his blue eyes burning into them as he spoke, "So you understand that I want you to kill a spiky haired-blonde man with the name Cloud Strife, along with anyone who might be traveling with him?"

All three nodded. It was Seifer who spoke up after Rufus had finished, "And how much are we getting paid again?"

"More than you've been paid in your life-more money than you've ever owned, I should say." Rufus corrected himself. He had just so happened to have stumbled upon these three when he was looking for General Caraway's place, and decided to make allies with them instead. "Do you understand your instructions?" Rufus asked, eyeing every single one of them.

"Affirmative," Fujin nodded.

"Yes, sir," Raijin responded.

Seifer only nodded. These instructions were simple enough. Find Cloud Strife, kill his companions, and then report any sightings of three silver-haired teenagers within a fifty mile radius of Galbadia. Easy enough.

&&&

Sephiroth reached Balamb within a matter of a few minutes. He rushed towards the train, smile on his face. He looked at the time the train was leaving. At two o'clock. It was one thirty now. He grinned, approaching the train, but he was stopped by a man who had a stern look on his face. "I'm sorry sir, but you cannot board the train until it is ready to leave."

Sephiroth smirked, cracking his knuckles. His eyes flashed a dangerous hue before he punched the man in the gut, making him crumple before Sephiroth's feet. Sephiroth did so much as glance at the man as he walked past him. Kadaj and Yazoo glanced down at the man without care and followed Sephiroth without a word. They headed towards the very back of the train. Only when they had reached it, did Sephiroth speak.

"Strife and his friends are coming aboard this very same train. A while ago, I told you we were going to kill him, well it's a change of plans. I want you to stay back here and do not leave this compartment." Sephiroth growled, looking at Kadaj and Yazoo.

They nodded, fear showing in their eyes at Sephiroth's tone. Sephiroth nodded and then sat down, looking out the window, waiting for Cloud to arrive. He was going to have one hell of a time! Ha, ha!

&&&

Seifer went to the entrance of Galbadia and exited it, carrying his Gunblade. He didn't speak to Fujin or Raijin as he made his way across the open plains, keeping alert for any monsters that might decide to show their ugly faces in front of him. His eyes flashed as he remembered his rival. Hopefully-if he were lucky enough, Squall would be with Cloud. That would make his day! Killing his biggest foe, how nice that would be!

&&&

Zack sighed heavily, they would need to be off if they were going to get to the train on time. He felt rather angry, like he had for the past few hours, and all of his anger was directed at Cloud. How could Cloud say he didn't know why Zack would not give him the buster sword back? He knew what he had done! He fumed as he sat there next to Aeris, his back to Cloud.

Cloud had tried to hurt Aeris with that damn sword of his! His lips twisted into a snarl as he remembered the color of Cloud's eyes. They had been green and boiling with rage. Zack hadn't even thought of taking it into consideration that Sephiroth could manipulate Cloud; he had never known Sephiroth to do that.

Zack stood up and grabbed his stuff. It was nearly two, they had to get going. "Come on Aeris, let's go," he said quietly as he began walking towards Balamb, following the dirt trail. Aeris came up beside him and touched him lightly on the shoulder.

"Zack, I know you're mad at Cloud, but please forgive him. He didn't mean to." Aeris told him gently. Zack felt anger coil up within him, but when he spoke, his words were soft and masked the hidden rage within, "But how do you know that?"

Aeris blinked, looking at Zack closely before replying, "I don't. Just look at the way he keeps looking at us, Zack. If you haven't noticed, he's been very confused about thing right now. He keeps asking me why you're mad, but I haven't told him. I can't tell him-he'd leave."

"Why would be do that?" Zack asked, looking at Aeris, his eyes narrowing.

Aeris smiled weakly before looking back at Cloud. She hadn't told Zack about Cloud being manipulated by Sephiroth. Now, she guessed, was the time he knew. It might help things. "Well…before Cloud defeated Sephiroth for the second time, just after I was killed-Sephiroth took control of Cloud's mind and body. Cloud couldn't act for himself. Sephiroth had told Cloud to bring him the Black Materia, and Cloud had at the expense of everyone. Well AVALANCHE went to the Northern Crater and found Cloud. He had given Sephiroth the Black Materia and that was when Sephiroth had used it to summon Meteor. Cloud, though, regained control over himself, which was the good thing-I don't think Tifa or anyone else would want to fight a friend."

Zack nodded slowly, not sure what to think. Why hadn't Aeris told him sooner? He looked back at Cloud, who was looking ahead, a frown on his face. Cloud did not seem to see Zack as he looked at his friend. Zack sighed and turned all the way around and quickened his pace, seeing the small ghost-town up ahead.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Cloud felt as if he had done something wrong-no he _knew_ he had, but he was unsure of what it was. Whatever he had done, he had done it with his buster sword otherwise he wouldn't have lost it. Now he had become troubled as he walked behind Zack and Aeris. All around him he could sense the presence of monsters and he could hear Zack and Aeris talking about him. His Mako eyes narrowed as he listened to them, but after a few seconds, he blocked them out of his mind.

His head hurt really bad, but the aspirin had dulled it, but it seemed to Cloud, as they get closer to Balamb, his head hurt worse. His mind wandered back to the images he had seen when he had been knocked out cold by the headache. He had been in the Lifestream, watching as Aeris, Zack, Hojo, and Sephiroth's souls faded from it, leaving shadows that stained the Lifestream's green hue. Then he remembered his other dream where Denzel was staring at someone with horror. Then there was Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, they were following Seifer, and Cloud realized, that whoever Laguna, Ward, and Kiros were, they would be a great deal of help.

Then came the images of his three newest enemies, Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin. He knew nothing about these three; Squall had never mentioned them or anything else for that matter. These three could be the biggest threat or they could be the smallest threat; Cloud didn't know. All at once, he noticed that they were at the entrance of Balamb. He blinked, noticing a familiar face standing just outside the entrance of Balamb.

"Cloud! How is everyone?" Zell's mother came forward, a small smile on her face.

Cloud blinked, "Just fine, where's the train station?" Cloud asked at once, his head suddenly searing.

Zell's mother smiled and pointed out the directions. When she had finished telling them, they all nodded and headed towards the train.

&&&

Reno and Elena were getting closer to Galbadia. Both were still shocked at how they had seen Zack and Aeris. They knew Aeris was dead, but they both tried to focus on getting across the ocean. Elena didn't seem so angry anymore as their small little motor boat glided across the ocean. Reno thought that she would just love to return to Galbadia and see Tseng. That made him try to hold back a laugh.

"Elena, do you have a cell phone?" Reno suddenly asked, shattering the silence.

Elena turned to look at him with confusion, "Where's yours?"

"I think I might have dropped it somewhere…" Reno admitted, searching his pockets one more time, but they were empty. Elena sighed and shook her head and took out her cell phone and handed it to Reno.

Reno took it without a 'thank you' or 'thanks' and dialed Tseng's number. It rang about four times before Tseng picked up, "Hello?"

"Hi, Tseng, we'll be in Galbadia by nightfall." Reno cut to the chase, not bothering to explain what had happened earlier, but of course, that was Tseng's next question.

"Reno? Why do you have Elena's phone? And what happened earlier when you hung up on us?" Tseng demanded at once.

"Oh…I kinda lost my phone and Aeris and Zack are alive and their dog attacked us. Um…I'll give you the details when we get there." Reno explained hurriedly.

"No, you're going to give me the details now and then tell me how you expect to call us when you need us without your phone." Tseng growled on the other end. He sounded rather angry.

&&&

Squall had managed to find a quiet place where no one else was and sat down. He closed his eyes, wondering when all this would end. Just moments ago, Barret cussed out Quists, who nearly beat him with her whip if it hadn't been for Red who had to drag Barret away. Then Tifa had vanished with Selphie and Marlene was running around, looking for a TV. He sighed, shaking his head. Then there was the problem with Irvine and Yuffie. Irvine had tried to show Yuffie how to fire a gun, but, sadly, when Yuffie had gotten the gun-she ended up shooting at a Moomba which attacked her. This place was chaos!

Squall had no idea where Vincent had vanished to, one minute, he had been there, the next, he had faded into the shadows and no one had seen him since. Squall thought that Vincent had left the Garden-that was good, Vincent scared the living daylights out of the smaller kids around fifteen or so. He sighed-he still needed to go ask Cid if he had something he could do.

Squall decided to do that now and stood up and walked out of the Quad and headed towards the elevator. He pushed 3F and went up to Cid's office. When he entered Cid's office, Cid looked up and smiled and offered Squall a seat. "Just the person I was wanting to see, Squall!"

Squall blinked, no emotion in his eyes, "Why?"

"Because, it just so happens that I have a mission for you and your friends. I need you to go to Centra and visit Edea. I want you to give her this." Cid handed Squall a small box and a letter.

Squall looked down at it, blinking and looked back up, "I'm not a delivery person, Cid," he commented bluntly.

That earned a laugh out of Cid as he spoke again, "I know Squall. I also want you to go to Esthar and visit Dr. Odine there. He told me something about a disturbance intercepting his radio waves from his space shuttle and the Lunar Gate. Go get some information on that. I know you've been wanting something to do, so I gave you these tasks. Oh yeah, we have word on Seifer-no that you'd care, but a SeeD member spotted him walking through Galbadia talking with some business like men who seemed to look as if they had a lot of money. The SeeD member says that he overheard some of their conversation."

Squall looked at Cid without care and interrupted, "Why are you telling me this?"

"Just listen, as I was saying, the SeeD member said that he heard something about a Cloud Strife and killing someone with a lot of money involved. I thought you might wanted to have known considering Cloud is here with the Garden." Cid finished.

Squall blinked in surprise. Why the hell would Seifer want to kill someone that e didn't even know? Well, he was getting paid-Squall shook his head and nodded. He stood up and went down the elevator and went in search of Irvine, Selphie, Rinoa, and Quistis along with all of Cloud's friends.

&&&

Vincent now stood outside the Garden. He would not stay there any longer. He had to find another place to stay that wasn't so crowded-and he must find a way out of here. His red eyes flashed as he turned from the Garden and his friends and left, taking his gun out of its holster. He was ready to fight some monsters. As he walked across the plains, he came across Bite Bug.

Vincent raised his gun and fired, killing it instantly. All the monsters around here were way too weak. As he grew more anxious to fight, the demons in his mind grew restless, wanting out. Vincent fought them off, but soon-he knew they would be free, knowing they could kill because Vincent wanted to kill. That would _not_ be a good thing.

&&&

Kadaj sat in silence, wondering what he should do. He didn't know whether he should go and leave Sephiroth when he go the chance, or if he should stick with Sephiroth and fear for his life. If he stuck with Sephiroth, there would be a lot of killing and chaos, that amused Kadaj, but if he left Sephiroth and found Rufus, Kadaj could take back Mother. What to do, what to do? He sighed, unsure.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Cloud boarded the train, noticing that when they past the conductor, he eyed them with fear showing in his eyes. Cloud ignored him and sat down. Zack and Aeris sat down right across from Cloud, beside each other. Cloud kept his eyes downcast towards the floor as the train left the station when the clock struck two. He looked up when there was a sudden crash from somewhere in the train. At first there was silence but then he could just make out someone yelling in an angry, "What the hell? Stop that!"

He figured it was just some other passengers and looked at the window. It was then, though it was faint, that Cloud saw his reflection. He was shocked to see that his eyes were not blue, but green, a deep emotionless Mako green. Was that what had angered Zack so much? There was nothing Cloud could come up with. "Why are my…?" he let the sentence hang in the air as he turned away from the window.

Zack, he noticed, was staring at the door with confusion. Aeris was looking between Cloud and the door and then Zack. Cloud looked at the door and saw that someone was opening it. In Cloud's mind's eye, he saw the image of Sephiroth flash before his eyes. He flinched inwardly as the pain in his head grew for an instant before fading away.

The door opened in a flash and out came a teenager with silver hair, followed by a second teenager with longer silver hair. "Run Yazoo! Run for your lives! CLOUD STRIFE! RUN! BROTHERS RUN FOR THE HILLS!" the teen screamed.

Cloud jumped to his feet, realizing that it was Kadaj and Yazoo and that meant…oh hell no! He spun towards Kadaj and Yazoo and ran after them, leaving Zack and Aeris dumbfounded. Poor them…Hell was coming fast.

"WHAT DID YOU TWO DO AND WHERE THE HELL IS LOZ?" Cloud yelled over Kadaj and Yazoo's terrified screams.

"Sephiroth killed him! And um…uh…I told him to go to hell because I needed to find Mother and well um…now he's out to control you and kill us! RUN!" Kadaj squealed as they heard Zack shouting something and saw him fast approaching them, carrying Aeris.

"Hey Big Brother, where's your sword-maybe you can kill Sephiroth for us! He isn't the real Sephiroth!" Yazoo asked, looking at Cloud and saw his green eyes. An evil smiled played on his face, but it vanished as Cloud responded, "Zack! Give me my damn sword before we all-Wait! Did you just say that isn't the real Sephiroth?"

"That is right, Big Brother!" Kadaj yelled. "With Mother I shall be the true Sephiroth! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Cloud…why the hell are they calling you their brother?" Zack yelled. Cloud turned to face him, but was stopped by Kadaj, "Shut up! You're not my brother-and Cloud, just because I warned you, doesn't mean I'm not going to slit your throat open later." Kadaj growled, but he squealed with fear as he reached the end of the train. Only one thing to do. Kadaj flung open the door and yelled, "JUMP OFF THE TRAIN!"

"Are you crazy? We'll get killed!" Aeris screamed in terror, clutching onto Zack for dear life. Kadaj turned to face her, "Woman! I'm not gonna die! You might though." Kadaj muttered.

"Hey!" Aeris shouted. Suddenly Cloud grabbed Zack by the arm and pushed him in front of the door and then he kicked him off the train. Zack fell onto the dirt ground below and looked up at Cloud just as the train passed and saw Cloud flinch before kicking Kadaj and Yazoo off the train. Why he was helping them, he didn't know.

"Damn you, you stupid puppet! Why did you throw them off the train? I wouldn't have hurt that dumb Cetra or her boyfriend-my other two puppets, though, are a different story." Sephiroth's rageful voice came from behind Cloud.

Cloud meanwhile, felt the sharp pain stabbing at his conscious, luring him into a sleep, but Cloud fought. He would _not _give into Sephiroth's control!

&&&

Kadaj spat the dirt out of his mouth a stood up, dusting himself off. He looked over at Yazoo, who was glaring at the passing train. Kadaj noticed that Yazoo had his gun out and was firing at it. Why Yazoo was doing that, Kadaj would never know. He sighed, looking around him. This place was dark…of course-they _were_ in a _tunnel **under the ocean.**_ "Damn it!" he swore aloud, his Mako green eyes looking through the darkness. He loved that ability to see through the darkness without any night vision goggles! It made him feel special!

"Ow…ohh…why did he push us off the train?" a whining voice cut through the silence that followed the passing of the train. Kadaj turned his head to see Zack and Aeris coming their way, Aeris was limping and appeared to be in pain.

"Because he saved our lives." Zack replied simply, locking his cold Mako blue eyes with Kadaj's, "Do you have any healing materia on you? I think we left all of our stuff in the train."

Kadaj blinked and then glared at them, "Why should I help you?" he retorted. Zack and Aeris were his enemies, just like Cloud was. The only reason (okay so there was two reasons) why he had helped Cloud was 1. He wanted to be the crap out of Cloud, not Sephiroth. 2. It was so fun to sit there and make his Big Brother angry!

"Kadaj, look," Yazoo pointed to a place across the train tracks. "Am I seeing thing or is he real?"

Kadaj's eyes widened in horror at who he saw standing there, glaring at both of them, tears in his eyes. "HE'S COME BACK TO HAUNT US! RUN YAZOO RUN!" Kadaj screamed, but before he could even so much as move, Loz raced over and grabbed Kadaj by the arm and whined, "Why did you let him kill me Brother, why?"

Kadaj tried to get away from Loz, terrified out of his mind of a ghost. If Kadaj had been thinking and he _hadn't_ been hit in the back of the head by Sephiroth for leaving the back of the train; he might have realized that a ghost can't touch solid things and hold them back like Loz was doing.

"Loz, let go of Kadaj." Yazoo ordered, his green eyes flashing. Loz obeyed at once, butt hen he turned to face Zack and Aeris and cracked his knuckles, "Who are they?" he asked as Zack shielded Aeris, a snarl on his face.

Zack was hurt too, but he tried not to show it. But being pushed off a train did put a hurting on you. Plus, on top of all that, he had a major headache.

&&&

"Strife…you're useless to me now if you can't be around your friends to kill them. Get off this damn train!" Sephiroth snarled. Cloud, who had bent over in pain from where his head had been hurting him like hell, was kicked in the side. He fell off the train and landed in the dirt. Cloud's eyes opened wide in pain and shock from the sudden fall to the ground.

All the air rushed out of his lungs and he lay there, gasping for air until finally, the pain began to subside. But Cloud did not get up. He would not go looking for his friends, no, he was a danger to them. Sephiroth had just proven that by his words. Instead Cloud, pulled himself up against the wall and rested there, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. Why was it always him who got hurt? Why oh why was it him?

Far of in the distance, Cloud could hear people talking, some yelling and some were so quiet, Cloud couldn't tell who was talking. He knew Kadaj's voice that sounded terrified. Cloud couldn't help but smile as a thought entered his mind. _Kadaj is a remnant of Sephiroth a clone. He has Sephiroth's anger and torturous soul-who knew Sephiroth could be so scared of a ghost? Yazoo-he has Sephiroth's quick thinking and sudden anger, but understanding. Loz-Loz has part of Sephiroth's strength, but otherwise, he's a dud._

&&&

After Kadaj had told Loz to back off, Zack asked again, rather irritated, "Do you have any Cure materia?"

"I told you I'm not helping you, scum bag." Kadaj sneered, turning away from Zack and walking off a few feet, followed closely by Loz and Yazoo. Loz seemed to be sulking about something while Yazoo just stared ahead, his eyes narrowed. He said nothing. Zack, on the other hand, was ready to hit Kadaj any minute. And now that he had two buster swords, Kadaj might want to look out.

"Hey Kadaj, you know I have _two_ buster swords now, and being a first class SOLDIER, I can whip your ass with them." Zack retorted. He felt Aeris hit him lightly on the shoulder for his bad language, but she said nothing.

Kadaj turned to look at Zack with wide eyes, his mouth opened slightly. "You're a f-first class SOLDIER?" Kadaj gasped. But he seemed to snap out of his shocked state and replied, "You're lying,"

"No, I'm not. Sephiroth and I weren't enemies forever ya know. He _did_ have power over me, yes, but we were friends at once. See, here is picture from when we were at Nimblheim just before Sephiroth found those files in the ShinRa mansion." Zack took out a photo from his pocket that he always kept with him. He showed it to Kadaj.

It was a picture of Zack, Tifa, and Sephiroth. Tifa was smiling, Zack was looking bored, Sephiroth was turned away, looking at something, not really interested. "Still don't believe you," Kadaj muttered.

Zack grinned at the next thought that came across his mind. "Want me to prove it to you?" he asked, his tone hinting danger. He cracked his knuckles threateningly.

Kadaj's eyes widened in fear as he realized what Zack meant to do. "Uh-no thanks! Don't hurt me! Here, take the damn materia, I have no use for it anyway!" Kadaj threw a green materia at Zack, who caught it just before it hit him and handed it to Aeris. Aeris sat down, relieved to get off of just one foot and used the Cure materia to heal her foot.

She stood up, her ankle no longer hurting. Though she couldn't see all that well, she looked to what she thought was straight forward, clutching Zack's arm, "Can we get out of this tunnel now? It's cold and wet down here."

Zack blinked, looking down at Aeris and nodded," She's right. For now, until we get the hell out of this place, we're not enemies."

Kadaj and the others nodded. Zack watched as Kadaj got a wondering look across his face before a smile played on his face. He took out a cell phone and typed in a number. Zack heard it ringing and realized it was on speaker phone. Kadaj motioned for them to be quiet as a voice answered, "Hello?"

"Hello, idiot." Kadaj replied.

"Who is this?"

"Me," Kadaj replied smartly.

"Grr! This isn't funny, who the hell gave you this number?" the voice growled from the other end.

"I've known this number Tseng, you remember me, right?" Kadaj asked. When Zack heard the name 'Tseng', memories flashed before his eyes. If he remembered correctly, it had been the Turks that had killed him…Tseng was the Turks' leader. Anger flared within Zack as he stepped forward, not making his intentions clear.

Quick as lightning, he snatched the phone from Kadaj's hand snarled, "Tseng! You damn jackass! You killed me!"

"What? Who is-oh yes! You're Zack, Reno told me you were alive! Hm…I thought he was drunk or something-oh well! Huh? What? Zack, Rufus wants to talk to you."

"Rufus? Who the hell is Rufus?" Zack asked, staring at the phone. Kadaj, who had been trying to get his phone back without success, suddenly stopped and burst out laughing at Zack's question.

Aeris, who had gotten her own weapon from the Garden-which was a staff of course-grabbed it from where Zack kept it for her and whacked Kadaj over the head with it. "Hello? Zack?" an unfamiliar voice echoed through the phone.

"Who are you?" Zack asked.

"I am Rufus ShinRa."

Zack blinked, "And?"

"If you must know-my father is dead, Sephiroth killed him-good riddance! He was a fool but anyway, quit the chit-chat. You are a friend of Cloud and Sephiroth-well former friend, am I correct?" Rufus asked.

"Yes, what are you rambling on about?" Zack demanded, walking down the dark trail with Aeris clinging to him because she was virtually blind in the darkness.

"Well, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, the three you are with, they are all clones of Sephiroth-if you haven't noticed. I would advise you not to trust them, and if they have any materia-take it away from them. They're dangerous with it-I should know."

Zack blinked, "Okay, and you say Reno is there hmm? I doubt you'll do it, but do me a favor and bust a glass bottle over his head-might teach him a lesson-and if you don't do it-I will."

"Whatever, now hang up the phone, Zack, I have nothing more to say to you." Rufus ordered. Zack growled, but did as he said and tossed the phone back to Kadaj, who just barley caught it. "Why did you ruin my prank call?" Kadaj whined, "And my threats?" Zack didn't turn to look at Kadaj as he continued forward. He, like Aeris, wanted out of the tunnel and away from Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz.

Speaking of Loz, the idiot had been stabbed by Kadaj because Kadaj still thought he was a ghost and Loz was now laying in bloody mud-dying-again.


	20. Part 3

Part 3-Chapter Twenty

After about twenty minutes of walking, Zack came upon a person sitting against a wall, seeming to be asleep. Zack knew instantly who it was. He rushed over to Cloud, with Aeris. Aeris wasn't totally blind, she could tell Cloud was there and that he was asleep. "Why is Cloud out here?" Aeris asked Zack and she tried to shake him to wake him up.

Zack shrugged, "I dunno, maybe he fell off the train too." He bent down to be sure Cloud wasn't hurt seriously and found that Cloud seemed to be just fine. Aeris was still shaking him, trying to get him to wake up when Kadaj and Yazoo came up.

Cloud groaned, rolling his head over to his other shoulder, opening his eyes slightly. "Are you alright?" Zack asked at once. Cloud opened his Mako green eyes all the way and looked at Zack. Cloud's eyes widened in horror.

&&&

When Cloud saw Zack, terror spread through his whole body. At first he didn't move or speak, but then his mind seemed to realize how much danger his friends were in. He pushed himself to his feet and jumped past Zack, running a few feet ahead of them. "Stay away, Zack, Aeris-you're in danger with me around!" Cloud warned them.

"But you have no weapon," Zack pointed out.

Cloud shook his head, "That's what you think." Cloud reached behind him and to everyone's surprise, drew out the buster sword. How they had missed it, they didn't know. Zack reached behind him and only felt one sword. "But how did you…?" Zack asked, staring at Cloud.

"I swiped it. Hanging around a materia thief taught me a few tricks," Cloud explained and then turned away from them and broke into a run. No one moved at first, but then Zack and Aeris ran after Cloud.

&&&

Squall found everyone and told them where they were going. They were going to take the second train that ran to Esthar and visit Dr. Odine first and then borrow and aircraft to get to Centra. As they entered the station in Balamb, Squall got aboard the train followed by Barret, Red, Tifa, Yuffie, Irvine, Selphie, and Rinoa. The train started and it zoomed through the underground tunnel.

&&&

Kadaj was the first one to hear the roar of a train as they followed his Big Brother. "Hey guys! A train is coming! Let's try to hop aboard!" he yelled as the small dot of light came into view. Yazoo caught up to Kadaj and nodded but Zack and Aeris gave no reply as they neared Cloud. Kadaj watched as Zack was able to get just behind Cloud and grab his arm, jerking him back.

Cloud was stopped and Zack stumbled backwards with Aeris, but they had at least caught Cloud now. "You're not leaving us Cloud." Zack told Cloud with a determined tone. Kadaj watched as Cloud looked over at Zack and then looked away, "You don't understand, do you? Sephiroth plans to use me to kill off my friends and allies."

"Well you can just forget about that, Cloud. We won't let him do that, and besides, we all want out of this tunnel so lets get on the oncoming train and leave." Aeris said gently.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Cloud asked, looking up at them. Kadaj watched as Zack looked back at the nearing train before responding quickly, "Well, if you guys hadn't kill Loz, we could have used him, but since you did, Kadaj-Rufus said you had materia. Do you have a Slow materia?"

Kadaj blinked and then nodded. He didn't want to give up his materia, but he believed he'd do just about anything to get out of the dark, damp tunnel. He took out the Slow materia and handed it to Zack, who gave it to Aeris. "You're better with materia than all of us, use that on the train."

Aeris nodded and waited for a few moments until the train was very close and then she used the materia. The train slowed, but it was still going a pretty good speed. As it past, Zack ran forward, grabbing hold of Aeris, he grabbed the handle and opened the door. He hung on, helping Aeris in first and then he climbed in. Kadaj and Yazoo came next, but Cloud just stood there for a second. Then he ran, catching up with the twenty-miles and hours going train and jumped aboard.

&&&

Sephiroth grinned as he road on the other train. He had lost his puppets, but Cloud was with all of his friends now. This was going to be a great day for him…

&&&

Cloud looked up to see Tifa, Yuffie, Red, and Barret staring at him. Tifa rushed forward and helped Cloud to his feet. He stood up, but went over to a seat and sat down, not speaking to anyone. He didn't look up at anyone either. Tifa sat down beside him and asked, "Why were you all down there?"

Cloud knew she had been looking at him when she had asked that and was expecting an answer from him, but Cloud refused to speak. Tifa asked again, but no offered an answer. Kadaj would have answered, but Zack kicked him in the side, signaling that he should remain silent. "Why won't you tell me, Cloud?" Tifa asked.

Tifa tried to look Cloud in the face, but Cloud turned away. He knew what she would think when she saw him with green eyes like Sephiroth, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. She would think that he was just like them, nothing more than a remnant, and at the moment, that was what Cloud felt like, a remnant. He was already putting everyone in danger by just being around them. He didn't know why he was even in the train with them.

&&&

Vincent had found a way off of the small continent, and was now walking on the outskirts of a city. His blood-red eyes glared at the ground. His blood was boiling with fury and anger. Several times Chaos had suggested that they go in the city and just kill anyone that dared look at him funny. Vincent had rejected it every time because he knew Chaos only wanted to do what he did best-cause chaos.

After a moment, Vincent sighed and turned away from the city, keeping his gun out, he headed for the forest. The temptation was rising and his barrier against the demons was going to shatter very soon and then…

&&&

Sephiroth knew the time was coming as he jumped off the train and landed gracefully onto the dirt ground below. Cloud was on a different train and Sephiroth wanted to be there when he killed all of his friends. Sephiroth knew that Tifa was there with Strife along with the rest of AVALANCHE, excluding Cid.

He walked up the railroad tracks, laughing to himself as he strode on towards the train that would be passing by soon. His Mako green eyes glowed as bright as a cat's as he stopped and waited, cracking his knuckles. He flexed his fingers, eager to watch blood be shed.

&&&

Cloud felt Tifa rest her hand on his hand she asked again. He drew back, as if he had been stung, and stood up, walking over to the other side of the train. "Stay away from me, Tifa," he warned with a dark tone. It was then that he looked up to meet Tifa's surprised brown gaze.

It was as he had expected. Tifa's eyes widened at the color of Cloud's eyes and she gasped loudly, making everyone turn to look at her and then Cloud. Every AVALANCHE member saw Cloud's eyes and, as if on cue, they asked at the same time, "Why are your eyes green?"

"I-" Cloud began, but quite suddenly, he inhaled deeply, gasping for air. Pain seared through his whole body as he dropped to his knees, and nearly fell to the ground, but he caught himself. Cloud stayed there, gasping for air as Sephiroth's image filled his vision before it blurred. Cloud shut his eyes tightly, sitting down. Tifa rushed forward, but Cloud drew back, gasping, he sputtered, "Tifa…get away!" Cloud could feel Sephiroth taking over his mind and body.

"Cloud!" Aeris gasped, but she did not move, knowing what was coming.

Zack, however, advanced on Cloud and Tifa and grabbed Tifa, pulling her away from Cloud gently. Then he moved past Tifa and stood in front of the kneeling Cloud, looking down at him before bending over and quickly snatching the buster sword. "**Give that back!**" Cloud snarled as Zack drew back swiftly. His head lifted and his eyes glowed a fierce green as he glared at Zack.

"Wha' the hell is wrong with Spike?" Barret demanded, standing up and facing Zack.

"Yes, Zack, what is wrong with Cloud?" Red asked, keeping an eye on Cloud who was slowly rising to his feet.

"Um…Cloud?" Yuffie asked, staring with wide eyes at her friend. She blinked, not liking the look in his eyes. His eyes showed nothing. Just a vast green of Mako, they were empty and blank. It was so creepy.

"No time to explain!" Zack replied to everyone's questions, staring at Cloud, gripping his buster sword tightly. Kadaj and Yazoo were staring at their brother.

"Big Brother, I warned you about that!" Kadaj told Cloud, walking up to him and waving a hand in front of his face.

"Um…Kadaj, I don't think you should do that," Yazoo said, his voice shaky.

Kadaj looked over at Yazoo replied, "Why? Big Brother wouldn't hurt his brother would he?" To answer Kadaj's question, Cloud's hand flew out and gripped Kadaj's. In a flash, Cloud flipped Kadaj on his back. "Ow…"

"I take that as I yes he would," Yazoo replied, taking a step back from Cloud. "Calm down Cloud! You don't have to hurt me! I only shot you in the face, nothing more! Don't kill me Brother!" Yazoo squealed, hiding himself behind Zack.

Suddenly the door was wrenched open on the train again and a very familiar face steppe din. There was a wicked grin on Sephiroth's face as he faced everyone and spoke, "Why, isn't this a crowd?"

Meanwhile, Cloud was fighting against Sephiroth's control, but he was losing very badly. He could feel himself going numb, he could feel his body beginning to move without having any control. Cloud could hear Sephiroth's maniacal laughter ringing through his ears as he turned to face Zack, Aeris, and Kadaj. "Give me back my buster sword, Zack."

Zack held up Cloud's buster sword in a defensive position, his Mako blue eyes narrowing. "Cloud! Snap out of it!" Zack yelled.

"B-Brother? Are you going to hurt me too?" Kadaj whimpered from behind Zack, his green eyes wide with terror as he looked from Sephiroth to Cloud.

"I could make him kill you too, but no, Kadaj, he won't-unless you slip up again." Sephiroth spoke, looking at Kadaj, his Mako green eyes narrowed. He spoke up again, "Give him your sword, Kadaj."

"But-but! It's mine!" Kadaj whined, but he squealed in fright as Sephiroth continued to glare at him, unsheathing the Masamune. Kadaj quickly removed his double-bladed sword from its sheath and tossed it to Cloud, who caught it.

Cloud swung it, getting the hang of its light weight and then he advanced on Tifa, Barret, Red, Squall, Yuffie, Irvine, Zack, and Aeris. Yazoo joined Cloud, taking his gun out. Sephiroth didn't speak up as an evil grin flashed across his face. He knew that Cloud's friends didn't want to harm him, but if he could let Cloud kill or injure one of them, they would be forced to. And then they might kill Strife! Yay!

"Cloud! Stop it!" Tifa demanded, looking at Cloud with a terrified pain in her eyes as Cloud advanced on them, his Mako green eyes glowing a dark hue and a twisted, evil grin was on his face. He looked crazy to everyone standing there as he approached them, swinging the blade.

The double-bladed sword nearly caught Red XIII on the nose as he drew back, shaking his head. Zack stepped forward before Cloud could get any closer and swung the buster sword, hoping to throw Kadaj's sword out of Cloud's hands, but it was no use. Cloud was powerful, and even though the buster sword weighed a ton, Kadaj's blade did not break. Cloud swung the blade at Zack, but Zack parried it. Everyone knew Zack wasn't going to go on the offensive of Cloud unless it got out of hand. Meanwhile, Aeris had turned to Kadaj, who was slowly creeping over to Sephiroth. His back was to her and she raised her staff. A glare on her face, she hit him in the back of the head just where his neck and head connects. Kadaj seemed to freeze and then he dropped onto the steel floor, unconscious. Aeris glared down at him, not bothering to look at Sephiroth as she reached down and grabbed one of Kadaj's materia. Suddenly there was a silver blade against her throat. Aeris froze instantly, fear spreading through her body as Sephiroth held the Masamune to her throat.

Squall, who was watching without a word, suddenly drew out his Gunblade and stepped towards Sephiroth, a look of hate a fury on his face. Sephiroth glanced up at Squall, eyeing the Gunblade, but he did not speak, but rather, he merely smirked and pressed the blade closer to Aeris's throat as she dropped the materia. It rolled across the floor and bounced against the metal wall and rolling over to where Rinoa stood, staring in silence. Angelo was growling at Yazoo, who was backed up against the wall, pointing his gun at Angelo. Rinoa, ever so slowly, bent down to grab the materia, but Yazoo suddenly spoke up, raising the gun to Rinoa's head. "Drop it," Rinoa dropped it at once, frozen just like Aeris.

"Why you!" Squall suddenly growled, spinning around and holding up his Gunblade and pointed it at Yazoo. No one would dare point a gun at Rinoa and get way with it. He was still her protector no matter what. Irvine held up his shotgun, pointing it at Yazoo's heart, while Zell held up his fists. Quistis, who had come along, grabbed her whip and faced Yazoo. Outnumbered, Yazoo was forced to take his gun away from Rinoa's head. Regardless, Squall fired the gun and shot the gun right out of Yazoo's hand. Rinoa instantly grabbed the materia and ran over to Squall.

The red summon materia reacted at once as Rinoa clutched it. She hadn't expected it to, but out of nowhere, a large fiery demon dog appeared. The demon dog roared with fury and murder as a large fireball appeared in his hand. Everyone except Rinoa's targets were drug into the safe dimension as Ifrit swung the ball of fire down upon Sephiroth, Kadaj, Yazoo, and Cloud. When Ifrit vanished, everyone reappeared. Rinoa was staring down at the with shock and surprise. Aeris had been able to escape from Sephiroth and was now standing beside Barret and Red XIII.

"How did that happen?" Rinoa asked, her eyes wide as she handed Aeris the summon materia. She had never heard of being able to summon a Guardian Force using one of those before; she had always believed that when you used a GF, it was implanted in your mind and whenever you used it, it ate away at your memory. She hadn't used a GF in so long, it was hard to even remember when she had used one.

"You can use materia?" Aeris asked, moving towards Rinoa, but she kept an eye on Cloud and Zack. Zack, who had turned to look back at Aeris to be sure she was safe, suddenly flinched in pain as Cloud slashed him across the shoulder. He backed off a few feet, but he could go no further without endangering the others.

&&&

Rinoa faced Aeris and nodded, "I guess…so…" She hadn't expected Ifrit to appear as Aeris took the materia, but the dog demon did not come forth. Rinoa glanced over at Sephiroth, who seemed unmoved by Ifrit's appearance. Yazoo and Kadaj were hurt, that was apparent. Cloud seemed injured too.

Cloud swung Kadaj's sword again. Though Zack was a first class SOLDIER, Cloud was quicker with the lighter sword. Kadaj's katana tore into Zack's side, leaving a deep, bloody gash. Zack heard Aeris scream out and dared glance her way just as Sephiroth held out the Masamune, preventing her from moving.

Zack barely had time to move as Cloud lashed out again, this time catching Zack across the chest and stomach. He flinched in pain, and he suddenly realized that if he didn't switch to using offensive, Cloud would kill him. Zack sighed heavily through all of the pain in his body as he raised the buster sword, he spoke, "I'm sorry Cloud," and then he brought the buster sword down, hitting Cloud with the Omnislash.

Cloud was thrown against the wall, blood splattering from the wound that the Omnislash had caused. Zack watched as Cloud slid down the wall, his eyes closing; he slumped onto the floor. Now Zack spun around and faced Sephiroth, who was clapping slowly, "Nice, I didn't think you'd ever hurt him!"

"Sephiroth!" Zack snarled, rushing forward, but quick as lightning, Sephiroth flung open the train door and leapt out just as Zack reached him.

Meanwhile Aeris had rushed over towards Cloud and dropped down beside him, worry flashing in her emerald green eyes. "Cloud! Cloud! Kadaj! Give me a Cure 5 materia right now!"

Kadaj, who had just recovered from when Aeris had smacked him with her staff, hurriedly found a Cure 5 materia and threw it at Aeris, now afraid of the seemingly-innocent Cetra girl. Aeris caught it, but Rinoa came forward and spoke, "Don't, you keep that. Let me heal him."

"But-" Aeris protested, looking at Rinoa with confusion.

Without waiting for an actual reply from Aeris, Rinoa stepped in front of Cloud and dropped down on her knees. She muttered, very quietly, holding her hands over Cloud's wound, "Curaga…"

Green specks sprung up from the ground, surrounding Rinoa and when they covered Cloud, a circle of green light appearing under Cloud. Rinoa had her eyes shut as she concentrated on curing Cloud. When she felt the magic fading from her, Rinoa opened her eyes and stood up. The wound was gone, but the blood remained and Cloud did not awaken.

Rinoa had turned to Zack and asked, "Do you need me to heal you too?"

Zack shook his head, dropping Cloud's buster sword and sat down on one of the seats, closing his eyes. His whole body hurt and in truth, Zack did need to be healed, but he was determined to ignore it. His body was half numb anyway, but Zack hadn't been counting on how much blood he was losing. When he opened his eyes again, the room was spinning.

Zack wasn't aware of falling asleep. He wasn't aware of anything around him. His vision flashed and he found himself standing in the Forgotten City, looking past the water and staring into the glowing white bushes and trees.

Zack's eyes snapped open. He as still in the train on the seat. The only thing different was that he was covered in bandages. Zack blinked and looked around and spotted Selphie holding a roll of medical tape, chatting with Squall. Aeris was still beside Cloud, who was still unconscious; Rinoa was sitting beside Squall, leaning on him, asleep. Irvine and Yuffie were sitting beside one another, looking from Squall to Selphie. Yazoo and Kadaj…well they weren't exactly very comfortable-no, they were tied up and neither had their weapons. Kadaj's was few feet away from Cloud, while Yazoo's was in Squall's hand.

Zack wondered why Selphie looked a little ticked, but he didn't listen in on their conversation because he could guess by the way she was pointing at Yazoo's gun. And it wasn't really hard not to hear them. Tifa, meanwhile, was also beside Cloud, while Red was laying on the floor, his tail twitching with annoyance at Squall and Selphie's bickering. Barret, Zack noticed, was asleep.

"You are not going to give Yazoo his gun back, Squall!" Selphie suddenly yelled. Zack turned to look at Squall and Selphie. Squall held up a finger, signaling that Selphie should be a little quieter and pointed down at Rinoa.

"I never said I was Selphie! So shut up before you wake up Rinoa!" Squall hissed, tossing the gun away. Zack watched as it flew through the air and…flew out a window-busting it of course. "Opps…" Squall muttered as glass covered the floor. Red stood up at once as it covered his pelt and shook himself. Mistake.

Small shards of glass flew everywhere, and Zack tried to shield himself with his arms. Everyone else copied him as the glass bounced off of everything. "Red!" Barret suddenly snarled, waking up at once when he felt glass falling from out of no where and saw the wolf hybrid shaking himself. "Why you thrownin' glass at everyone?"

Red looked up at Barret and gave him a wolfish grin as he replied, "Sorry-but you shouldn't be mad at me, Squall is the one who broke the window!"

"What? Why you Squall! I oughta-" Barret roared, but was interrupted by Zell, who was holding up his hand and was moving his fingers up and down, making a little mocking sound as he spoke, "Blah, blah, blah! Shut up already!"

Zack sighed, shaking his head as he looked up at ceiling. How long had they been on this train? Not long, that was for sure. Well not as long as they could have been…at least they were out of the underground tunnel. "Can someone untie us?" Kadaj asked, waving his hands up and down from where he was tied up, glaring at everyone. As soon as he spoke up, Aeris grabbed her staff. Kadaj noticed it and yelled, "Oh please have mercy on me!" Aeris hit him over the head, snapping, "Shut up, Kadaj! You'll wake up Rinoa!"

But it was a little late for that because Rinoa had already sat up and was looking at Kadaj and Aeris with confusion. Zack sighed, these people were loud! Oh well…it was a crowd train-maybe they should kick Kadaj and Yazoo-along with Barret-into a different section of the train. That would be nice…so Zack suggested it.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

When Cloud finally woke up, the first thing he noticed, was that he was covered in blood. He blinked, realizing there was no wound. How had he gotten hurt? He looked around and the first thing he noticed was the bloody sword lying only a few feet away from his hand. Cloud looked up from it, wondering whose blood was on the sword. His question was answered as his Mako green eyes followed a bloody trail up to where Zack was sitting, looking out the window. He noticed that Zack's clothes were torn and he could see the bandages. "Cloud?" came a voice from beside him.

Cloud turned to look at who had spoken and saw Tifa. "Tifa? Did I-?" he couldn't finish the sentence as he pointed towards Kadaj's bloody sword while glancing over at Zack.

When Tifa answered, it was just as Cloud feared, "Yes Cloud, you did that, but it isn't your fault, you didn't have any control over your actions."

Cloud shook his head angrily. There was one thing wrong with what Tifa had said. It _had_ been his fault! He was the one Sephiroth had used, he was the one who jumped on the train and followed his friends. "It is my fault, Tifa!" he argued, his voice full of sorrowful disbelief.

When he said that, everyone looked over at Cloud. Cloud looked down at the steel floor but he was forced to look up again as he saw Zack's and his blood on the ground. When he did look up, Cloud met the eyes of Aeris. She was staring at him intently. "Can you…forgive me?" Cloud asked.

"No," Aeris replied quietly, "you don't need to be forgiven by any of us."

"But both of you…I let you die."

&&&

Zack looked at Cloud, narrowing his eyes; Cloud his best friend…was responsible for his death? Sure, he remembered being shot at…but Cloud could have prevented it? Suddenly, he noticed Aeris was looking at him, speaking, "Zack, Cloud doesn't need to be forgiven, does he?"

&&&

Cloud sighed, yes he did need to be forgiven! He looked over at his friends and then his eyes found the Souba and the drying blood on it. He closed his eyes, sighing, "I'm sorry,"

"Give back my sword Strife Brother!" Kadaj wailed from another section of the train. Cloud opened his eyes and turned to stare at the metal wall as a loud 'THUNCK" was heard from where Kadaj was banging his head against the wall.

"Shut up Kadaj! Otherwise they'll never untie us!" Yazoo's emotionless voice drifted into Cloud's ears.

"Why are they tied up?…" Cloud asked, picking himself up off the floor.

"Because Yazoo was threatening Rinoa and Kadaj is a danger to himself and everyone around him." Tifa explained, still sitting against the wall.

Cloud shook his head, closing his eyes, pitying the two brothers on the other side of the train. He opened his eyes and bent down, very aware that everyone was looking at him with shock as he picked up the Souba and went over to the door leading to Kadaj and Yazoo. He opened it, not looking at anyone, and walked over to Kadaj and Yazoo. "Brothers, I see you are in a little knot."

"Shut up Strife!" Kadaj snapped, but then his eyes found his bloody blade. "My sword! You brought me my sword!"

Cloud bent down over Kadaj and cut the ropes biding him and then did the same thing to Yazoo. They stood up and Kadaj turned to look at Kadaj. The silver-haired teen leapt for the Souba. Cloud moved it out of Kadaj's reach, sensing everyone's gaze on him from the doorway as he gave Kadaj and hard stare. Then he held ou the Souba and Kadaj reached for it immediately. "Cloud! Don't give it to him!" Tifa suddenly yelped as Cloud released the sword and Kadaj took it and sheathed it.

He walked past Kadaj and Yazoo and everyone else. The two brothers were following behind him, looking nervously at their Big Brother's friends. Cloud went over to a seat and sat down. "Cloud why did you-?" Aeris started but she never finished as Kadaj went up to her and demanded his summon materia back.

"Sit down, Kadaj!" Cloud suddenly snapped. To everyone's surprise, Kadaj obeyed silently.

&&&

Zack couldn't believe that Cloud had actually given Kadaj his sword back-and he had untied them! Why? Was Cloud still being manipulated? Zack looked over at Cloud, but Cloud was looking down at the floor, staring at the blood on his hands.

"Cloud?" Zack called from where he was standing. Cloud looked up at Zack for a split of a second, but then looked down again. He sighed and walked over to Cloud, keeping a close eye on Kadaj and Yazoo. "Cloud, it wasn't you're fault, besides, I'm perfectly fine."

"Really?" Cloud asked, his voice dull as he looked up at Zack.

Poor Zack though, as Cloud looked up, pain flashed through his head. He shut his eyes tight from the pain, everything seeming to freeze around him a he dropped to his knees. Everything flashed green as his surroundings vanished and were replaced by a garden of flowers and the broken pillars and pews of Aeris's church. Zack blinked, finding himself standing beside Cloud and Tifa, who were both out cold. Dark green liquid covered Cloud's left arm and had burned small holes into the ground around him. Then, everything changed and everything turned white. It was bright, blinding white light and Zack found himself standing over Cloud, who had his eyes closed, drifting in the forever brightness of where ever he was. That was when Zack noticed something. He saw paws where his feet should have been. _He had paws? And fur!_ And those paws were shaped like a wolf's…Zack was a wolf?

Zack's eyes snapped open . He found himself looking at the floor, shock spreading through his body. He stood up, stumbling towards a seat. He sat down, feeling Cloud's regretful gaze on him. Zack tried to block Cloud out for a moment as he thought about what he had just seen. He knew it had all been real, but it was hard to believe. What had been wrong with Cloud in the image of Aeris's church? 'Geostigma,' the word had just popped into his head. What was Geostigma? Zack turned to look at Cloud, Kadaj, and Yazoo. Then he looked at Tifa.

"What is Geostigma?" he asked. At once all eyes were on him when he had uttered 'Geostigma'.

Tifa would have answered if Kadaj hadn't jumped up, yelling, "My invitation to the Reunion! I shall take back Mother and together we'll take over the Planet!"

"One problem with that Kadaj, this isn't Gaia, the Planet." Aeris pointed out, watching as Kadaj's face suddenly grew rather upset.

"Shut the hell up and sit down Kadaj!" Cloud snapped, hitting Kadaj in the back of the head really hard.

&&&

He was free! Chaos glared at the monster in front of him. He flexed his claws, a nasty grin on his face as he rushed forward and slashed it down, ripping its heart out. The monster shrieked in pain as it died. Chaos felt the urge to spill more blood rise within him as he watched the monster twitch until life had left it completely. He wanted to kill…and not just monsters. He wanted to shed the blood of a human-to hear them scream as he killed them. Chaos turned from the forest, his lips curling in a snarl. He could heard train in the distance. Trains always had people on them.

Chaos came very close to the train and then he leapt at it, his claws ripping through the metal. Loud groans came from the metal as he ripped and slashed at it, tearing it away. He could hear a loud scream coming from within the train as he jumped in, his red eyes dripping with a crimson blood-like hue. Chaos set his eyes on a young girl cowering behind an older man who had a gun out.

Quite suddenly, the smell of the wounded filled his nostrils. Chaos growled, turning to the wounded human, his eyes flashing as he saw the blood covering the man's clothes. He was standing, reaching for a large sword. "Chaos?" a loud and familiar voice filled the room. Chaos's curled his lips into a snarl as he realized who was talking. It was Cait Sith, that really annoying toy cat. Chaos ignored the talking toy as he moved forward.

Suddenly he heard a loud, girly scream coming from the other side of the train. Chaos's eyes snapped over to where the scream had come from. "Cloud! Brother! Hide me!" That was Kadaj.

Chaos noticed Cloud sitting there, looking at him with anger. He seemed very tense. Chaos turned his head away from Cloud, shaking it roughly and then his eyes caught sight of Red XIII, Tifa, and Barret. He knew these people…and damn that Vincent! Chaos could feel Vincent taking back control. Chaos curled his lips, snarling in a deep voice, "**_I'll get you next time,"_**

All at once, Vincent was standing there, hunched over, but he stood up at once, feeling slightly dizzy as he looked around. His eyes found Zack, who was glaring at him, "What?" he asked coolly, his crimson eyes flashing. Then Vincent turned to look at what Chaos had done to the train. He sighed, shaking his head. Then Vincent noticed that there was blood on his hand whipped it away, turning back to Zack and waited for a reply.

"What was that?" Zack finally asked, sitting down.

Though Vincent had waited for a reply, he did not answer Zack as he turned to everyone, changing the subject completely, "Have you found a way out of here yet? And what happened to Zack and Cloud?"

"No, and it's a long story." Tifa responded.

"Then let's hear it." Vincent responded, looking over at Cloud who was covered in blood. He noticed that some was flecked on his face as if it had splattered everywhere.

&&&

Cloud was silent the whole time that Tifa was talking. After she had finished, Vincent gave Cloud a very rare look. It was a look of understanding and pity. Cloud didn't want to be pitied, and just that look from Vincent made him stand up. He had lost all rights to be the leader of AVALANCHE, he knew, and now, he found himself wanting to leave.

"Brother? Where are you going?" Kadaj asked as the train finally slowed to a halt. Cloud didn't respond as he jumped out of the hole that Chaos had made.

"Cloud!' Tifa called, about to go after him as Kadaj and Yazoo jumped off too. Tifa was held back by Vincent, who had placed his human hand on her shoulder.

"Let him go," Vincent spoke, watching Cloud vanish over the hills.


	22. Chapter 22

Okay-don't flame me Cloud fans! Or else fear my body guard- Vincent Valentine!

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Two

The first thing Sephiroth did was find a way out of the underground tunnel. Once he was out, he followed the train tracks to the nearest place that it stopped. Satisfied, he shut his eyes for a moment, calling Cloud to him. He knew that Kadaj and Yazoo would follow.

&&&

Reno and Elena were speaking with Tseng, telling him everything that had happened. "Seifer is out looking for Cloud and his friends. Rufus is trying to now speak with General Caraway about trying to capture Cloud using his soldiers. If what you say is true, then Cloud will be much harder to get." Tseng explained, looking from Reno to Elena.

Reno nodded and then spoke, "Tseng, Elena wants to tell you something very important." He looked over at Elena, grinning. He should have done this a long time ago!

Elena suddenly seemed very nervous as Tseng turned his gaze on her. She opened her mouth several times to speak, but nothing came out. Reno nudged her with his elbow, trying to get her to hurry up. Elena sighed and took a deep breath, "Tseng, will you go out with me?" she finally gasped out.

&&&

Cloud had reached Sephiroth in no time at all. As soon as he reached Sephiroth, the most unexpected thing happened. Sephiroth went up to Cloud, cracking his knuckles. All at once Cloud felt the air rush out of his lungs and pain sear through his chest and stomach as Sephiroth punched him. He dropped to his knees, clutching his stomach, his eyes shut tight in pain. As Cloud tried to breath, Sephiroth paced in front of his kneeling form, speaking, "Strife, my little puppet, you were supposed to kill Zack. Why didn't you kill him-any of them for that matter?"

Cloud looked up at Sephiroth, his Mako green eyes burning as he snarled, "Because I_ will not_ be controlled by you!"

Sephiroth glared down at Cloud, kicking him in the stomach. "You do realize that you will always be my puppet, Cloud. I will control you when I wish and you can't fight it, not even when you face your friends."

Sephiroth glared with utmost hate and rage at Cloud as he waited for a reply. Cloud, who had regained his breath, growled, "You're not going to use me to hurt my friends, Sephiroth! I'm not ever going to be one of your damned SOLDIERs that you can order around, you damned demon!"

Cloud really needed to learn to keep his mouth shut as Sephiroth kicked him in the face with the tip of his boot. "I will do as I please, Strife. And yes, you are my SOLDIER now, you lied to everyone, well now I think it's time we twist that lie into truth." Sephiroth smirked, "And the first thing you need to learn in discipline."

Cloud glared at Sephiroth, his eyes full of fire as the blood poured down his face. "Sephiroth, shut the-" Cloud didn't finish as Sephiroth kicked him in the gut.

"Disciplinary class lesson number one: Listen to me and keep your mouth shut." Sephiroth growled, glaring down at the kneeling Cloud.

Cloud could taste the bitterness of his own blood in his mouth as he looked up at Sephiroth again, and he knew there was going to be a bruise from where he had been kicked. Everything was growing a little fuzzy around Cloud from the blood loss and pain in his body as he glared at Sephiroth. He would not give into Sephiroth!

&&&

Tseng stared at Elena, unsure how to answer her. This had been so…unexpected! The room was spinning before his eyes. Tseng really needed some beer…

&&&

'Cloud', Tifa sighed in her mind as they boarded another train that led to Esthar. 'Where are you?' Vincent and Zack had both told her not to go looking for Cloud because she wouldn't find him. But she missed him so much and he was always running away from her. 'Not this time though…I'll find you this time Cloud…' she told herself in her mind. Tifa had every right to decide if she wanted to look for Cloud or not! She had decided to go look for him _right now_!

&&&

Cloud_ hated_ disciplinary classes! Sephiroth was harsh and evil! Poor Cloud still hadn't passed Lesson one!. He didn't want to listen to Sephiroth-much less keep his mouth shut! Kadaj and Yazoo were just watching and Cloud swore he heard Kadaj mutter, "I hope we don't end up like Big Brother!"

Sephiroth, Cloud didn't know, had heard Kadaj or not. He didn't really pay attention to anything Sephiroth was saying except when "General" Sephiroth brought up the words "Kama Kazi".

"When-if you ever-pass your disciplinary classes, we will move onto hand-coordination classes for hand-to-hand combat; solitary confinement classes; and my favorite, Kamikaze class." "General" (ex) Sephiroth explained.

"What?" Cloud yelled in shock from where he was now sitting in his own blood. "I am not going to become a Kamikaze unit!"

Sephiroth merely glared at Cloud as he grabbed him by the arm and yanked him up. "Stand up, Strife. We will continue your training when we reached the Island Closest to Hell."

Cloud's eyes widened by just the name of the place and he wailed, "No! I have a better idea! Let's just go to the Island Closest to Heaven instead!"

"Quiet Strife!" Sephiroth snapped, kicking Cloud into the dirt. "Otherwise we can continue your classes here."

Cloud didn't respond as he picked himself up, whipping the fresh blood away from his face. This was going to be the longest day of his life…

&&&

Laguna sighed, shaking his head, "Kiros! How could you lose my machine gun!" Usually Laguna joked around and was in a cheerful mood, but he had let Kiros borrow his machine gun and Kiros had ended up losing it.

"Oh…well…um…you see-it goes like this: Ellone told me to see Dr. Odine, and well…um…I think Dr. Odine took it and gave it to a Moomba." Kiros replied, looking at Laguna sheepishly.

"He what! Kiros! A Moomba doesn't know how to use a machine gun!" Laguna panicked.

"Dr. Odine says that he wants to teach the Moomba how, like you taught them how to speak!"

Laguna sighed-he had taught the Moombas one word and that was 'Laguna'. He ran out the, door, going to find the Moomba that had his machine gun.

&&&

Vincent was the first to noticed Tifa's absence. "Tifa is missing," he stated, glancing at everyone as they turned to look at him, and then they too, noticed that Tifa was indeed gone.

&&&

Seifer, Raijin, and Fuujin were walking along the outskirts of Galbadia, watching four people heading towards the ocean. Three of the four had silver hair, but the last one who was covered in blood, had spiky blonde hair. Could this be Cloud Strife and his friends?

&&&

Squall looked around for Tifa, but he never did find her. He had long since guessed that she, despite Zack and Vincent's words, had gone looking for Cloud. Because they were on their way to Esthar, they could not leave the speeding train. And thought Tifa was not there, they still looked for her. Squall sat down, leaning back and closing his eyes after a while. He was so tired!

He heard Zack swear as he and the others return. "Why did she go looking for Cloud? She's going to get herself killed!" Squall opened his eyes and saw that Zack had left Aeris's side and was now speaking to Vincent. He looked angry-he had a right to be angry!

&&&

Tifa listened to everything the ex-General had said to Cloud. She learned that they would be leaving very soon. When they started towards the ocean, Tifa followed at a distance. She longed to help Cloud, to stop Sephiroth from crushing Cloud's resistance and spirit, but she could not do it alone-it would be suicide if she did.

&&&

Sephiroth knew that Tifa was following them, but he did not stop her. He could make good use of her when the time came. There was a large boat waiting for them at the ocean. They climbed aboard, Sephiroth dragging Cloud without using any effort.

Sephiroth went over to the front of the boat where there were chairs set out and sat down. Kadaj and Yazoo also sat down, but Cloud only stood there, glaring at the ocean. "I'm going to go clean up," he told Sephiroth and left, heading into the wash room.

&&&

Laguna found the Moomba jumping up and down at the old train station that had been reopened-but barley ever used. To his great displeasure, the Moomba was firing the machine gun like man. "Stop shooting Moomba!" he pleaded, trying to get close.

At the sound of his voice, the Moomba turned to look at him and began jumping up and down, dropping the machine gun, yelling, "Laguna! Laguna!" and then it jumped on top of him, knocking him down.

&&&

Tseng felt tongue tied as he tried to answer Elena. He wanted to say 'Give me a minute', but, alas, the words would not come. He could feel Elena and Reno's eyes on him. Elena was blushing from her question, but the bright hopefulness in her eyes were slowly dying away as the seconds ticked by. He blinked, his mind fuzzy. "Um…huh…" was all he could say.

The sane side of him was telling him that it wasn't aloud to date your employees, but Tseng, apparently, wasn't listening to that side of him as he finally responded, "Yes, um…Elena, I will…"

Elena suddenly squealed in delight and wrapped her arms around his neck. As quick as it ha happened, Elena jerked away, her face turning a deep shade of red. "Sorry, Tse-sir."

"What is going on? Elena, what's wrong?" Rufus's voice came from the doorway.

Elena seemed to blush even more at the sight of Rufus and his question and then turned to look at him, stuttering, "N-Nothing,"

Rufus looked at her, his eyes narrowed, "Don't you dare lie to me Elena. Tseng, why does Elena look like this?"

Tseng-for once in his life-did not answer Rufus. Rufus growled and actually asked Reno what was going on. Elena and Tseng groaned.

"Elena just asked Tseng to sleep with her and-" Elena turned a deep shade of red and punched Reno in the face, bloodying his nose and busting his lip open. "Shut up!" she screamed.

"You what?" Rufus yelled, staring at the two.

"No! She didn't! She asked me to go out with her and I said yes!" Tseng replied hurriedly, panic dripping in his voice.

&&&

Squall sighed as he continued to listen to Zack and Vincent. "Do you think that she'll find him?" Zack asked.

Vincent shrugged, "Probably, but it won't do her any good. Cloud is with Kadaj and Yazoo and most likely Sephiroth."

Squall closed his eyes again, resting his head on the leather seat. He just wanted to finish his two SeeD missions, and kill Sephiroth…

&&&

Cloud washed the blood off of his face, wondering if his nose was broken. He reached up and pinched it. It hurt to do that, but no, it wasn't broken. At least it had stopped bleeding…Cloud looked down at his shirt and sighed. It was soaked with dry blood that stuck to his skin. Maybe he should wash it too…He took it off and when he did, he noticed the red ribbon on his arm. Cloud frowned, wishing he could return to his friends, but he couldn't, he was with Sephiroth now…Below the red ribbon, Cloud noticed that his arm had a patch of black sores going up it. Cloud had forgotten about his Geostigma. It hadn't bothered him ever since he came here.

Cloud went back to wash the blood off his shirt, watching the once clear what turn an ugly crimson. He let it drain out for a minute and then went back to trying to get all of the blood out of it.

Unknown to Cloud, someone was watching him from the doorway with wide eyes.

&&&

Tifa stared at Cloud as he took off his shirt, rinsing it with water. Her mouth was open slightly and she found herself not breathing, drool dripping off her chin. She took a small breath, unable to stop staring at Cloud as he subconsciously rubbed the spot where his Geostigma was.

Suddenly Cloud turned around just as Tifa ducked down and hid herself from him. She was blushing and found that no matter what, she could not face Cloud like _that._

&&&

Cloud blinked. He could have sworn he saw someone at the door. He walked over to it and looked out. Nothing. He turned his head and saw a very familiar figure hunched up against the wall, sitting down and trying to look a small as possible. "Tifa?" Cloud asked in surprise.

Tifa looked up at Cloud and he noticed that she was blushing. When she spoke, her voice was cracked with embarrassment, "Y-Yes?"

Why was she looking at him like that? Cloud looked down at himself and remembered that he had no shirt on. 'Oh…' he told himself mentally. Cloud bent down and placed one of his hands on Tifa's shoulder, whispering, "What are you doing here, Teef?"

"Trying to f-find you…" Tifa responded, her voice still shaking. Tifa looked away again, the red on her face brightening

Cloud sighed. There was no way he was going to let Sephiroth find Tifa. He looked around but there was no place to hide Tifa except in the wash room. It would have to do. "Get up Tifa, you don't need to be seen here-especially with me."

Tifa did as she was told. Cloud led her into the washroom and shut the door. "Cloud…why did you let Sephiroth do that to you?" Tifa asked after a few seconds. She had never heard the beginning of the conversation, only the end, but it had been enough.

Cloud looked at Tifa, a frown on his face. He replied, his tone grave, "I had no choice, I didn't go to Sephiroth on my own Tifa. He had the upper hand on me in the first place. I couldn't fight him on the ground…"

Tifa blinked, nodding, looking down at her feet. Suddenly she felt Cloud's hands on her shoulders. Tifa looked up at Cloud.

Cloud looked at Tifa, his Mako green eyes flashing their normal blue hue for a second. "Tifa, I want you to hide yourself. Do not leave this boat when it stops when we get to that island. Don't follow me, I don't want you to get hurt because of me. I have to go-but Tifa, I _will_ come back, but when I do, I might not be the Cloud Strife you see now."

"But Cloud I-" Tifa was cut off as Cloud moved close to Tifa and captured her lips with his in a passionate kiss. It didn't last long though because the door was flung open and there stood poor little Kadaj, holding an ice cream.

Kadaj was staring at Cloud with wide eyes, and he dropped his ice cream when he saw Tifa and Cloud kissing-and Cloud was without a shirt. Cloud glared at Kadaj menacingly, "If you tell Sephiroth, Kadaj, I'll rip out your lung and through you off a cliff!" he threatened.

Kadaj continued to just stand there and stare at Cloud and Tifa, his eye twitching. Suddenly, he screamed in a loud, girly tone, "It burns! My eyes! It burns! Help me! I'm blind!" and ran away…

"And I thought teenagers his age would like that…" Tifa mused, staring at the shut door.

Cloud didn't respond as he moved away from Tifa and went to the sink. He grabbed his shirt and rung it out and then put it on. He gave Tifa a hug, whispering in her ear, "Good-bye Tifa…and whatever you've seen or heard…please, don't tell the others. Barret… know that he'll take back the position as leader of AVALANCHE, let him…but Tifa…" Cloud's voice was grave and full of horrible sadness as he drew away from Tifa. Tifa feared what he was going to say next. "I won't last long if Sephiroth keeps this up…you must know that. Zack-tell Zack and Aeris. Both of them are the only ones who needs to know, especially Zack."

Cloud nodded when he finished and then he left Tifa without even looking at her. When he had shut the door on Tifa, he felt horrible. He knew without a doubt that he was going to lose this fight. He headed down the hallway and went back to the front of the deck. He was met by a very angry Sephiroth.

"Strife, Kadaj here, tells me that you were making out with Tifa, is that true?' Sephiroth growled, his Mako green eyes boring into Cloud's. A little ways away, Cloud noticed that Kadaj was wrapped around a pole, looking green and throwing up into the ocean.

"No! Tifa isn't even here!" Cloud lied at once, his fury masking the worry within himself.

"Is that so?" Sephiroth flexed his fingers, curling them into a fist. Cloud hadn't expected what was coming. Sephiroth punched him full-force in the face. His head was slung to the side so hard that it gave him whiplash. A large, angry black and blue mark appeared on his face as Cloud turned to look at Sephiroth, blood pouring from his mouth. His cheekbone had been cracked and the inside of his mouth had been ripped open. He was very surprised he hadn't lost any teeth from that.

Cloud could barley stand the pain in his face as his eyes began to water, "Sephiroth you-" Cloud couldn't finish as Sephiroth held up one hand and growled, "Kneel before me, Strife." Before Cloud knew what was happening, he felt a forced pushing down on him that made him fall to the ground on his knees, the air being stolen from his body.

"Disciplinary lesson number 2" Never lie to me."


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

Tifa stared at Cloud with wide eyes. She could not believe this was happening, all because he had kissed her…She could only watch as Sephiroth made Cloud kneel before him and then kicking Cloud in the chest, throwing him back on the floor. She watched in horror as Sephiroth turned to Yazoo. Her breath quickened and her heart rate went up. She watched Yazoo pull out a second gun from his side holster and hand it to Sephiroth. Tifa couldn't watch, but she couldn't turn away either. She tried to force her eyes to close, but they would not.

She watched as Sephiroth pointed the gun at Cloud and said something in his ear that Tifa couldn't hear. She watched as Cloud's eyes widened in horror and shock as the gun was placed against his head. Tifa stiffened as Sephiroth cocked the gun. Suddenly Cloud's pain filled voice reached her ears, "Sephiroth! Don't!" he begged.

Tifa hadn't expected what was coming. Before she could blink ,Sephiroth stood up straight, and spun around, aiming the gun at her. Tifa couldn't even move as he fired the gun. The bullet passed through Tifa's chest. She heard herself yelp in pain as she felt the blood pour from the wound and then everything went black as she collapsed onto the hard wood floor of the deck.

&&&

Zack had already told everyone that he was going to go look for Tifa, and they had all agreed. Now that they had reached Esthar, Zack didn't have to take a train back and waist about thirty minutes riding on the train when he could ride an airship to Galbadia. He was already in the airship and was almost ready to go. He buckled up and set it on 'auto pilot'.

Then, before he knew it, Zack had the thing up in the air and it was racing like a speeding bullet to Galbadia. What really surprised Zack was that he had gotten to the Galbadia country in less than a minute. He set the ship down and climbed out and began his search for Tifa.

&&&

"Let me get this straight. She asked you out so you said yes even though you know you are breaking the rules by going out with her?" Rufus asked, staring at Tseng.

Tseng smiled slightly, as if he were trying to make it seem to be not as bad as it was, "Yes,"

&&&

Cloud stared at where Tifa had fallen. He felt himself standing up and rushing towards Tifa. He dropped down beside her, looking at the bullet wound in her chest. Was she alright? He didn't know, but what he did notice, was that she wasn't breathing. He blinked, gathering Tifa up in his arms. He felt no pulse when he checked and he felt tears begin to slid down his cheeks. Cloud could hear Sephiroth's boots hit the floor as he came closer to Cloud. Cloud did not move as he held Tifa's lifeless body, crying silently. "This is why I told you to stay away…" Cloud muttered, his voice choked with tears.

Suddenly Cloud felt immense pressure on his throat as Sephiroth grabbed the back of his shirt and twisted it. Because his air was cut off so suddenly, Cloud reached up to try and make Sephiroth let go, but Sephiroth merely flung him away from Tifa's body. Cloud hit the ground, banging his face on the hard wood. Pain seared through him as he gasped in shock, his hole body seemed to freeze. And then he heard a gun fire and felt more pain and then everything went black.

&&&

Thirty minutes had past since Zack had gone looking for Tifa. Now as he approached the ocean, he came across a boat. Zack climbed aboard, noting that there was no one on it but him and maybe someone somewhere that he couldn't see. He immediately spotted the trail of blood going off the ship. Zack followed the blood trail up to the front deck and found that there was a pool of blood leading to a door. Zack noticed more blood splattering the walls but nothing else. He did, however, find a curled up figure up against the door. A closer look told him it was Tifa.

He noticed that there was blood on her, but she didn't seem hurt. "Tifa?" he called down to her.

She moved and looked up. Zack noticed the fear in her eyes as she looked at him. And then, as she realized who was standing over her, she relaxed. "Z-Zack? Is that really you?"

Zack blinked and nodded. He hadn't expected Tifa to jump to her feet and throw herself on him. He could hear her sobs as she clung to him, her whole body shaking. "Zack! It's horrible! S-Sephiroth! He shot me and then he shot Cloud, Zack!" she told him.

Zack pried Tifa off of him, looking at her, "He shot you? Are you alright?'

Tifa nodded, "Yes, I-I'm fine. He revived me with a materia…but…when I woke up…Cloud was…"

She didn't finish as she let her voice trail off. Zack could tell she was shaken terribly and so he led her away from all the blood that he guessed must have been Cloud's. His Mako blue eyes burned with fury as he remembered the blood trail. Cloud had been hurt that bad? Zack felt Tifa slowing down as they finally made it off the ship. He looked at the trees in front of him and sighed. This was not going to be fun…he did not like going through monster infested forests…

Zack figured that as soon as he got back to Esthar, he could talk with Tifa then, but maybe right now wasn't a good time to suggest that. After he had helped Tifa through the monster infested forest-he went back to the airship and got on. He set it back on 'auto pilot' to go back to Esthar.

&&&

Aeris blinked, '_Gaia? Where are you? Won't you talk to me? Please?'_

Nothing.

Aeris growled in frustration, sure she had tried to contact the Planet seven hundred times already-she counted. Now she was rather angry and Zack still hadn't returned…Aeris looked around, spotting Squall, who was sitting there, glaring at Selphie who was trying to get Dr. Odine'' chocolate from him, but Dr. Odine said that it would turn you purple if you ate it. That seemed to make Selphie all the more want it. Aeris blinked, rolling her eyes and looked for someone else to talk to. Well there was Red XIII, he knew stuff about the Planet, right? Right!

Suddenly Aeris realized that Red wasn't with them. Where was he? She looked around but she did not see Red anywhere. "Nanaki? Red? Kitty? Um…opps…I mean hybrid wolf! Where are you?"

"I'm over here, Aeris." Red yawned, opening his eyes and looked at her. Aeris smiled and walked over to him and bent down to his height. "What do you want?" he asked her.

Aeris frowned suddenly, "Why can't I contact Gaia? I mean, distance shouldn't really matter should it?" she asked the red hybrid wolf, staring at him with utter confusion and frustration.

"I don't know Aeris…how many times have you tried?" Red asked, sitting up, his tail twitching.

"Around seven hundred and one." Aeris responded, blinking.

Red looked at her sideways and then nodded, "Okay…maybe the Planet has decided to remain silent…"

"Maybe…but would that explain why I have the strangest feeling that Selphie is about to turn into a cucumber if she eats that piece of chocolate-wait a second? Selphie! Don't eat that!" Aeris suddenly yelped, snatching the piece of chocolate away from Selphie.

Then Aeris settled back into a chair, groaning, "Gaia! Answer me!"

&&&

Reno could not help but laugh as Rufus slapped Tseng and then turned around and left. This was probably the funniest conversation he had seen between Rufus and Tseng-which this was actually the only funny conversation he had ever listened to that Tseng actually acted like a complete idiot in! Suddenly Reno stopped laughing as he felt Elena and Tseng's gazes on him. He gulped as he looked from one to the other. Okay, maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut earlier…

Reno backed away from them, holding up his hands, "Um…you guys don't want to hurt your best buddy, Reno, do you?" he asked, his voice full of fear as Tseng and Elena advanced on him, cracking their knuckles. Reno blinked. Uh-oh-Elena had already done enough! Why did he have to be the one to get ganged up on-why couldn't it have been Rude or even Rufus?

"Yes," they both answered, glaring death glares at him.

"Wait a minute! Hold you guys! I have an idea!" a sudden voice filled the room. All three of them turned to see Professor Hojo walking in.

They blinked, "Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Tseng asked, staring at Hojo.

Hojo narrowed his eyes, "Don't rub it in…anyway-Let's make Reno sing nursery rhymes! I have a video camera!"

Reno's eye widened, "No! Anything but that! Please! No not the nursery rhymes!"

Hojo's grin widened as he went up to Reno, "Okay then, you can be my new lab rat!"

"What! No! I'll take the nursery rhymes!"

&&&

Professor Gast groaned, banging his head on his desk. What the heck was he doing? Why was he even in Esthar in the first place working for a guy named Dr. Odine who had no idea what a Cetra was? He sat up straight, closing his eyes. He looked back down at the to-do list in front of him. Why was he even reading that and following what it said? Why was he working with Dr. Odine? He missed the Lifestream...Okay so he had forgotten almost everything except for Ifalna being there with him…but he didn't remember anything else.

"Selphie! Put that piece of chocolate own!" Professor Gast opened his eyes. Someone from up above was screaming. He sighed, how was he supposed to work with all these people screaming at the top of their lungs? He pushed his chair back and stood up, heading towards the elevator. It was nearly his lunch time anyway…

&&&

Aeris saw the door open as she grabbed yet another piece of candy from Selphie. Zack came in with Tifa and the first thing Aeris noticed was the blood all over Tifa. "What happened to her?" Aeris gasped, looking at Tifa, who appeared to be asleep-she had actually fainted, but Aeris didn't know that.

"Get her to tell you when she wakes up." Zack responded bluntly, setting Tifa in a chair and then he collapsed on the couch. "That airship is murder on you!" he groaned, closing his eyes.

Aeris looked over at Zack and then back at Tifa. She noticed that Tifa didn't seem to be hurt-in fact, the blood didn't seem to belong to Tifa. "Zack-did she tell you who's blood that is?" Aeris asked, blinking.

"Yeah…" Zack responded, but he didn't say a name. Aeris turned to look at him, a suspicion suddenly coming up from within her. She walked over to where Zack was sitting on the couch and sat down beside him.

"Who's?" she asked him, fearing the answer.

"Cloud's…" Zack responded, opening his eyes and looking down at Aeris. And then he looked away and watched as Barret went over to Tifa. Red had looked up from where he was laying down and was now staring at the elevator door. Squall was looking from Tifa to Aeris and Zack; Irvine and Yuffie were standing over near a door that was shut off and Selphie was still trying to eat candy.

Aeris was about to speak again when the elevator door opened. She blinked and turned to see who had come out of the door. A man in a white lab coat came out and was walking past them. He passed Aeris and Zack saying, "Oh hello, Aeris," suddenly he stopped. "Wait a second…Aeris!"

&&&

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder…" Reno sang. Hojo held up the video camera, yelling, "Gold!"

Elena and Tseng were laughing like idiots while ordering some whiskey to drink. Rufus had come in and now that Reno had gone through 'Do you know the Muffin man?' and 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star', and all kinds of others, no one could stop laughing. Heck, even Rude was laughing like a babbling idiot!

Reno felt so humiliated…he just might have preferred to have been ganged up on instead. "Now you have to sing the Barney theme song!" Elena yelled, hiccuping Reno groaned, "Can't I have some whiskey too?"

"Hey! Don't stop singing!" Tseng snapped, drinking another glass of whiskey-he's had about three already. Reno blinked, staring at the camera. There was no way they would get him to sing that. Na-uh! He was not going to sing that!

"Don't make me sic my doggy on you!" Hojo growled, drinking some of his own whiskey. Reno stared at Hojo.

"You have a dog?"

"Yes, wanna see him?"

Suddenly they heard a loud roar from the door. Reno turned to stare at the door and shook his head, "No thanks! I don't want to see your dog!"

"Sure ya do! Come here Frisky!" Hojo yelled, he ran over to the door and opened it and out came a-


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

Kadaj threw up for the last time over the boat. He felt so sick…what horror he had witnessed! Just thinking about it made him want to throw up again, but Sephiroth had told him that the boat had reached land and it was time to get off. As he headed towards the dock, Kadaj looked back at Tifa, who was staring at them with wide eyes. "Hey, what about the girl?"

"Leave her," Sephiroth ordered, without looking back. Kadaj nodded, wishing he hadn't dropped his ice cream. The poor ice cream hadn't deserved that…He jumped off the dock as the boat headed back towards the Galbadian shore. He looked over at Yazoo, who was dragging Cloud.

Kadaj blinked and then turned away from his brother, not offering to help as he went up to Sephiroth, "Where we goin'?" he asked Sephiroth, looking at him.

Sephiroth glared down at Kadaj. He blinked, what was Sephiroth so mad about? Kadaj fell back, just following Sephiroth, feeling bored. He wanted to go find Mother, but no, Sephiroth wouldn't let him! How rude! Mother had told Kadaj to find her and here this evil lunatic was saying no! Grr! Wait a second, what was he getting so mad about, hello! Sephiroth was walking right in front of him! 'Yes, but that isn't the real Sephiroth!' Kadaj told himself, 'I am! Now why did I forget that again?'

Kadaj shook his head, he missed his ice cream! He liked chocolate ice cream and he had dropped one because of…Kadaj felt like hurling again. 'Uh…I need to stop thinking about that! I've already thrown up five times-no wait, fifteen times already!'

Suddenly he felt something hit him in the head. Kadaj blinked…'oh', he had hit an evil branch. He really needed to watch where he was going…"IT BURNS!" he suddenly screamed. Sephiroth turned to look back at him with a confused look. Yazoo merely glanced at him, giving him a look that said I'm-gonna-shoot-you-later-today (or tomorrow).

"What was that for?" Sephiroth asked bluntly, looking at Kadaj with narrowed eyes. Kadaj smiled sheepishly and shrugged. If he said it a loud again-he die from horror, he knew he would! If he didn't melt first! This heat was killing him! Oh wait…hey there was a volcano here! Wait a second-there was a volcano here! When had that got here? When had he got here? Was he going crazy?

Suddenly Kadaj screamed, throwing up his hands and running around in circles around Sephiroth. Sephiroth narrowed his eyes even more-if it was even possible-and growled at Kadaj. Kadaj didn't pay attention as he yelled, "It burns! I'm dying! I'm melting! It's rain kitties! Ahhh!" Maybe Sephiroth should get Hojo to look at Kadaj…he seemed to be losing his mind.

'Oh wait…Hojo's dead…' Sephiroth thought sadly. Well, there was always one way to settle this problem! He gripped the Masamune's hilt and drew it out. He didn't really want to kill Kadaj because he only had three more revives…oh well.

"Mother JENOVA! Where are you! Rufus is an evil idiot! I'm melting Mother! I think I'm a Mother's boy!" Kadaj screamed. But he screams were suddenly cut off by Sephiroth slitting his throat.

"Yazoo, get the idiot while you're dragging Cloud, too."

"But-but! This is hard enough!" Yazoo whined, "And to think I let you use my gun!" Sephiroth glared at Yazoo and Yazoo instantly obeyed. It was a good thing Kadaj wasn't as heavy as Cloud…but this was still a hard job! "How much longer?"

"Not much…"

&&&

Aeris blinked. "Who are you?" she asked, staring at the man in a white lab coat in front of her. "How do you know me?"

Aeris felt so confused. Who was this guy? How did he knew her? Well, she got her answer about two second later, "Oh, yeah, that's right, we never met. I am Professor Gast, your father."

Aeris blinked, her eyes widening. Her what! Her father? She had not expected that. Aeris could barley remember her real mother-she was seven when her real mother had died, and only twenty days old when her father had died! "Um…uh…oh…uh…hi," Aeris stuttered. What was she supposed to say? "How did you know it was me?" Aeris asked, blinking.

Professor Gast blinked, "Well I-" he was cut off by somewhere saying, "Where am I? Zack? Where did you take me?"

Everyone's attention went to Tifa as she sat up straight, looking around. Zack, who was still sitting beside Aeris, got up and went over to Tifa. "I brought you to Esthar like I said I would."

"But what about Cloud? We need to go find him! You saw all that blood!" Tifa suddenly grew angry at Zack, looking at him with fury.

Zack sighed, "Tifa, we can't help Cloud right now,"

Aeris looked from Zack to Tifa. Apparently he knew something that he hadn't told anyone…

&&&

Tifa wasn't really sure why she was mad at Zack. It wasn't his fault that Cloud was like that-it was hers. And her she was getting mad at her for protecting her. She sighed and looked over to Aeris. She saw someone standing beside her friend and her eye flashed with confusion. "Who's that?" she asked at once.

"My father," Aeris replied simply.

"Who are you?" Professor Gast asked, looking at Tifa.

"Tifa, I thought you were dead…"

"I was…but here I am! Who is this Cloud that you keep speaking of?" Professor Gast, sitting down beside Aeris.

Suddenly Tifa jumped to her feet. Cloud had told her to tell Zack and Aeris only. But then she sat down again, sorrow spreading through her body. She sighed heavily, how was she supposed to tell them and just them without a fight? Tifa blinked, her eyes glazing over as she looked up at Barret. "Barret, Cloud said that you are now the leader of AVALANCHE, if you haven't figured that out yet…"

Zack bent down to look Tifa straight in the eye. She turned to look at him, staring at Zack. "Tifa," Zack began, "will you tell us what happened?"

Well, if she was going to explain to them what happened, might as well be now…she nodded, but she looked around at everyone, "You all have to leave except for Aeris and Zack. And Professor Gast, I realize that you must want to get to know your daughter, but you have to leave too, I'm afraid."

"Why do we all have to leave, Teef?" Barret asked, looking down at her.

Tifa seemed to suddenly flare with anger as she looked over at Barret and glared at him harshly, "Because Cloud told me only to tell Aeris and Zack!" Barret would have protested more if it hadn't been for Vincent turning to look at him, his crimson eyes flashing, "Barret, come on,"

&&&

Once Vincent had left the room, he turned to look at Professor Gast with narrowed eyes. He had been one of the researchers that was working along side Hojo. His crimson eyes flashed, but he said nothing, instead, he leaned against a wall, his arms crossed. To Vincent's great displeasure, Professor Gast came over to him and just stood about a foot away, looking at him. Just as Vincent was tempted to walk away from Gast, Gast spoke up, "I know you…"

Vincent narrowed his eyes. His lips twisted into a snarl as he responded, "Indeed, you do, Gast." His voice was dark and full of hate.

Vincent didn't move as Gast spoke up again, "Why aren't you that Turk who fell in love with Lucrecia?"

Vincent unfolded his arms, glaring at Gast with even more hate than before. His claws scratched against the metal wall, leaving thin, but deep marks in it. The sound caught a few people's attention, including Squall's and Barret's. Barret, having the big mouth he did, spoke up, "Shut up you-"

Barret didn't finish as Vincent slammed his metal hand into the metal, breaking right through it. His eyes turned a deeper shade of crimson as he glared at Professor Gast. "Don't you mention Lucrecia, Gast! You're the one who helped Hojo create the monster that is out there right now killing people and hurting our friend!"

"But I-" Professor Gast stared at where Vincent had walked off to, his metal fingers curling into a fist. Gast's eyes widened at the sight of it, "Vincent! Wait! Turk…um…are you still a Turk? Get back here! What happened to your arm?"

If Vincent wasn't able to restrain himself, he knew that he would most certainly have killed Gast then. He didn't exactly understand where all the sudden rage was coming from-Professor Gast had quit his research long before the Sephiroth project had been completed. But Gast had still helped Hojo and even though he had left, Vincent blamed a lot of people-but over all, he blamed himself for Lucrecia trying to kill herself, but the JENOVA cells inside of her hadn't allowed it. Now she was stuck in a Mako crystal. And Vincent had ended up like this…but he still loved her even though she had put Chaos inside of him, and he would protect her rights from anyone who dared speak about the past. He knew why she had distanced herself from him-it was because she blamed herself for his father's death-but even then, Vincent did not blame her. And now here was Professor Gast, one of the very professors he had been assigned to protect come up to him and start talking about Lucrecia. Maybe that was where all the anger was coming from. Professor Gast had brought up the one person that Vincent had ever loved and lost and led to the tragic events that followed…maybe…either that Chaos was feeding Vincent his anger and urging him to be released…that was a possibility too.

At first Vincent was very reluctant to answer Professor Gast's question, but when he did, his voice was dripping with venom, "Hojo did that…"

Meanwhile, Barret blinked, staring at the hole in the metal wall, "Ya know, I think dat Vincent has somethin' against Professor Gast. Wonder what that is…"

"Judging by the look he just gave Aeris's dad, I would say he does," Yuffie said, staring at Vincent and Professor Gast.

Back to Vincent and Professor Gast…

"Professor Hojo did that? I knew he was evil…but to do that to a man! Oh…um…if you don't mind me asking, whatever happened to Lucrecia?" Professor Gast asked, watching Vincent as he continued walking down the hallway.

Vincent did not look at Professor Gast as he turned back around. Maybe, for now, he would need to hang around some other people-and hopefully, Tifa would be done talking to Aeris and Zack. Then, when they were out-he was not going to stick around if Professor Gast stuck to him like this trying to catch up on all of this. "Actually, I do mind, Gast. But, if it will shut you up, Lucrecia is stuck in a Mako crystal thanks to you and Hojo."

"Thanks to us? What did we do?" Professor Gast demanded, staring wide-eyed at Vincent. "I would never intentionally hurt Lucrecia!"

Back with Barret and the others, they could now hear what Vincent and Professor Gast were talking about. Yuffie, having much better hearing than Barret, heard every word of it and was looking at Vincent and Professor Gast with wide eyes.

"I mean because of you-you may not have realized it, but after she found me shot-she brought me back to life-but in the process, she put Chaos, the Planet's WEAPON inside of me. Then, she tried to commit suicide, but the JENOVA cells in her own body would not let her die and so she excepted being stuck in a Mako crystal. It was the images that Sephiroth was to commit that frightened her. Sephiroth is the thing you helped Hojo create before he killed you too." Vincent glared at Gast, his crimson eyes flaring. Within Vincent's mind, the demons sent him horrible pictures of his past, torturing him and haunting him with those selected images. This was why Vincent hated talking about Lucrecia…he wanted to see Lucrecia more than anything at the moment.

Gast seemed to fall silent, unable to speak. Clearly he had not expected that-any of it. "Lu-Lucrecia did this to you?" he finally gasped out, "And she tried to commit suicide for what she had done?"

Vincent nodded, "Yes, you are correct, but Lucrecia did not cut off my arm, Gast, no, that was Hojo."

Yuffie blinked as the door opened. Zack, Aeris, and Tifa came out, all had very grim looks on their faces. Tifa's eyes were distant and blank. Aeris seemed deeply disturbed and worry was etched on her features. Zack seemed angry and worried. In fact, from what Yuffie could tell, he was very angry. And she could only guess at who…Sephiroth.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

Vincent was actually glad for once in thirty years. Professor Gast had left to go talk to Aeris! Halajuha! Zack, Vincent noticed, was looking at the hole in the wall. "Who made this big hole in the wall?"

Vincent groaned. Before he could even begin to answer Zack, Professor Gast spoke up, "Vincent here did that! I kinda made him rather man about…" Professor Gast glanced at Vincent. Vincent gave him a death glare, his crimson eyes burning, "…something…"

Zack looked up at Vincent, confused. He, unlike everyone else, didn't know a thing about Vincent's past. Usually Zack wouldn't pry, but he-in the time he had been with AVALANCHE-had not ever noticed Vincent look angry, sad, happy, or anything else-just emotionless.

&&&

Zack was about to say something, when all at once, he felt immense pain in his head. He gasped, his eyes widening as he dropped onto the floor. Aeris was at his side in an instant, placing a hand on his back. Zack tried to speak, but found that words would not come. He looked at his hand and saw that it was fading. Green specks surrounded him and slowlu, he began to vanish.

"Zack!" Aeis yelled, rapping her arms around him. Zack wanted to say something-anything-but within seconds, he was gone. In his place stood a silver and black wolf. The wolf looked around for a moment before it gave a sharp bark. The wolf turned its head to look at Aeris, staring at her with friendly blue eyes. "Zack? Is that you?" Aeris asked in shock.

The wolf wagged its tail and brushed against Aeris before it vanished. Aeris could only stare at the spot where the wolf had been in shock. Zack-he had turned into a wolf!

&&&

When Cloud awoke, he felt pain searing through his back. He gasped as he sat up. Firelight danced across his body as he bliunked, wishing the pain would leave his body as he looked around him, trying to take in his surroundings His Mako green eyes came to rest on a silver and black wolf. The wolf turned to look at Cloud with piercing blue eyes. The wolf didn't seem to be afraid of him as it approached him. suden;ly the wolf drew back into the shadows, its eyes flashing.

"Grr! Why do I have to do everyone's dirty-work?" a voice growled from behind Cloud. Cloud turned his head and saw Yazoo standing there, holding a plate of food. Yazoo glared down at Cloud as he shoved the plate into Cloud's hands. Then he stalked off into the blackness of the shadows.

Cloud blinked and looked down at the plate. It had a large piece of meat on it, but that was it. Suddenly he felt something nudge his arm. Cloud jumped, but then he realized that it was only the wolf. "What?" he asked, reaching out to pet the wolf. His fingers brushed its silver hair before it drew back a few inches.

The wolf whined at him, shaking its head. Cloud was confused by the wolf's behavior as he grabbed a small knife that was on the plate and cut the steak. He stabbed the piece with the knife and was about to stick it in his mouth when he heard a loud growl. He put the knife down, looking at the wolf, utterly confused. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Cloud noticed the wolf was staring at the steak. Its lips were curled in a snarl, its fangs flashing. It was obvious that Yazoo, Kadaj, and Sephiroth had done something to the steak. Cloud sighed and looked at the wolf, "Alright, what did they do o it?"

&&&

Sephiroth looked down at the list in his hand, crossing out what he had already done.

Kill Strife's Girlfriend

Bring Strife to the Island Closest to Hell

Feed Strife Mako

Continue Classes

Well at least he had three out of four done…

&&&

Cloud only got a growl out of the wolf. He sighed. He was starving and with each passing second, he was tempted to eat the steak in front of him. the wolf growled again, the fur on its neck rising. Cloud saw its fangs and blinked, inching away . Maybe this wolf wasn't as friendly as he thought…

Cloud tried to push the growling wolf out of his mind as he finally took a bite of the steak. He swallowed it, finding that it tasted very funny an bitter. Through his hunger, he was tempted not to eat anymore, but he realized how stupid that would be. He ate more of it, but on his fourth bite, the wolf suddenly lunged. It grabbed the meat right off the plate and ran off into the woods. Cloud stared at it in amazement. Maybe the wolf had just been hungry.

"Strife!" a loud voice came from behind him. Cloud tuned, flinching. His eyes founmd Sephiroth and it was as if a light had turned on in his mind. Tifa…she was dead because Sephiroth shot her!

&&&

Aeris looked around the room for an explination from anyone. Professor Gast was staring at the spot where Zack had b4en with amazement. Vincent was looking on without emotion. Yuffie was looking at her., Tifa seemed to have not paid attention to anything as she stared at the floor, her eyes glazed over in thought. Aeris felt so sorry for Tifa. She was worried for Cloud too, but for a moment, it had completely left her mind because of Zack's disappearance.

'Aeris…tell Tifa Cloud is fine, but his face is pretty banged up. The bullet hole doesn't seem to be hurting him much…' Zack's voice filled Aeris's mind, but she did not see him anywhere.

Aeris blinked, nodding even though Zack could not se her and stood up, approaching Tifa. Quietly, she explained everything that Zack had told her to tell Tifa.

When she had finished, she heard someone swear loudly:"That idiot!" Aeris spun around, spotting Zack, a furious look on his face. She watched in silence as he punched the wall, denting it in his fury.

"W-What happened?" Aeris asked, staring at him.

Zack turned to look at her with hard eye. "They were feeding him Mako-poisoning him, Aeris! I tried with all I could to tell him, but being a wolf has its limitations. I took it from him when he started eating it-I just hope he didn't eat too much…"

Tifa looked at Zack with anger in her brown eyes, "Why didn't you stay there with him?" she demanded.

Zack sighed, "Because, Tifa, Sephiroth came up. There was no way I could let him see me. He'd recognize mako colored eyes anywhere, and then he'd kill me."

&&&

Reno stared at the dog with horror. How could Hojo call that thing a dog! It was about as big as a twelve year-old and was a light brown color with blue eyes. It walked on two legs, hunched over, and instead of paws, it had long fingers with sharp, deadly claws on the end. It also had sharp fangs that poked out of it's mouth. "What is that thing!" Reno yelled.

"What this?" Hojo chuckled, an insanre look glinting in his eyes. "Meet my little lab rat, Denzel!"

"You mean that _thing_ is Strife's little orphan friend!" Reno gasped.

"No…maybe…yes. And his name is Frisky!"

&&&

Grimiore Valentine's face was grim and his dark colored eyes were flickering the confusion that he felt inside of him. Where was he? He remembered being in the Lifestream-but now he was in a dark forest and night was all around him. And for some odd reason, he was dressed like Van Helsing with the hat and the crossbow and everything else…strange.

Suddenly a teenager with short silver hair walked right past him. The teen turned to face Grimiore and said, "Oh! Hi Van Helsing!" and then walked off, but then suddenly turned around, "VAN HELSING! Can I have your autograph? And then can you go kill this vampire boy named Vincent Valentine?"

Grimiore blinked, his eyes flashing. He raised his crossbow, and growled at the teen, "No one calls my son a vampire!" and then fired at Kadaj. Kadaj got lucky because it missed-by just by a hair.

Kadaj looked confused, "Van Helsing has a son named Vincent Valentine? Wow! What a coincidence! Must be in a sequel!"

"No you idiot! My name is not Van Helsing! It's Grimiore Valentine-Vincent Valentine's father!"

"You're son's a vampire?"

"No you moron!"

"Oh…um…opps…maybe I'd better run…" A scream tore through his lips as he yelled "Ah! Evil Grimiore is alive and out to kill me! Help me Sephiroth! Help me Genesis! MOTHER JENOVA HELP ME! GRIMIORE VALENTINE-er….I mean Professor Valentine is out to kill me still! Call in the navy! Call in SOLDIER! Call in Genesis! Call in Strife!"

&&&

Sephiroth blinked. Kadaj actually knew something? Gasp! And it was about Genesis? Gasp! Sephiroth sighed as he looked down at Cloud, who was glaring at him. "Where's Tifa?" Cloud growled.

"Dead…"

"What did you do with her body, damn it!"

Sephiroth shrugged, looking at Cloud coldly and yet carelessly as he responded with a cold voice, "Burned it…no big deal really, Strife. It's not like you _meant_ to kill her, right?"

Cloud's eyes narrowed at Sephiroth. His green eyes flashed, "Why you evil little-" he never finished as he leapt at Sephiroth.

&&&

Zack looked at everyone, sighing. This was getting him no where…"Alright, one person can come with me. Who?"

Before Zack could glance at everyone, Vincent stepped forward, "I'll go if it gets me away from Gast quickly."

Zack rolled his eyes and nodded, "Alright, I guess you can come, Vincent."

&&&

Grimiore didn't exactly know why he looked like Van Helsing, nor why he had a cross bow…oh well. He took aim and fired it at Kadaj. He missed by an inch. Suddenly Kadaj scream in terror, "Ahh! Wolf! Ahh! Vampire boy! Sephiroth! Strife! Brothers! Help me!"

Kadaj spun to his left and vanished. Grimiore stopped and spotted a wolf along with a man wearing a red cape. Grimiore stopped chsing Kadaj and approached the wolf and the man. Grimiore could still hear Kadaj yelling, "Genisis! Sephiroth! Help!"

Grimiore rolled his eyes and yelled back, "Genisis isn't going to help you kid!"

Then Grimiore started towards the red-caped man who had turned to look at him with glowing red eyes. Grimiore blinked, horrified at the sight of the man's crimson eyes. He could see the haunted look about the him. he noticed the metal arm that the man quickly hid under his red cape. Grimiore took no notice to the wolf as he asked in a shocked voice, "Wh-What happened to you?"

Throughs all the changes, Grimiore would have never realized that this was his son, Vincent. Vincent did not look anything like the gentleman he had thirty years ago before Hojo got his hands on him, and so Grimiore stayed a few feet away from him. The man didn't answer, his long hair falling into his face as he turned to look down at the silver and black wolf and followed it in silence.

"Grimiore! He's alive!" a sudden, very loud voice drifted through the forest.

Grimiore, who was following the strange man, froze at once. The red caped man suddenly spun around, hios deep red eyes flashing an even darker crimson. His dark red eyes stared into Grimiores as he spoke with a dark tone, "You are Grimiore Valentine?"

Grimiore nodded, confused, "Who are you?"

Before the man could answer, they heard a loud cry of pain. Grimiore looked at where he thought the cry had come from, staring. "Why do you look like Van Helsing?" te man suddenly asked, his voice etched with confusion. "I thought you were a scientist, not a vampire slayer…"

Grimiore turned his atttention back to the person in front of him. He shrugged, "I don't even know that. One moment, I'm in the Lifestream, the next, I'm here in this forest dressed like Van Helsing. Ah, well, being a vampire slayer isn't all that bad…"

"Why does Lucrecia…blame herself for you death?" the man suddenly asked.

Grimiore was about to answer when all at once, a young female popped up behinnd the man in front of him, a grin on her face, "Hey! Now that you're a vampire slayer! You can slay Vampire here!" she said in a cheerful voice, a teasing note in it. Grimiore blinked as the haunted-looking man looked down at the girl with his emotionless crimson eyes.

"Yuffie, you were not supposed to come. And you know I hate the name Vampire!"

Yuffie blinked, a smile still on her face, "Okay, whatever, Vampire boy! Um…" 'Vampire boy' held up his golden claws. They flashed in the moonlight, making the young teenager gulp, "I-I mean Vincent! Ahh!" she ducked and slipped off into the forest, scampering up a tree with quick agility.

"Yuffie! You were not supposed to come here!" Vincent yelled, glaring up at Yuffie. Grimiore stared…this was his…son? What had…happened to his son! He watched with wide eyes as Vincent took a quick leap and was in the tree with the young girl. He grabbed her by the arm with his real hand and jumped back down. Yuffie squeaked as he let go of her.

"Hey! Vampire-Vincent! You didn't have to do that!" Yuffie glared.

"Shut up already Yuffie…Grimiore, ignore her."

"V-Vincent? Valentine? M-My son?" Grimiore breathed, unable to speak as he watched Vincent nod slightly. "Wh-What on earth happened to you?"

"Son? You're Vampire's father? Opps…I mean Vincent."

Vincent sighed, "Forget this for now, we have to go find Cloud. Where'd Zack go?" The wolf suddenly reappeared and gave a sharp, low bark.

&&&

Cloud suddenly screamed in pain as he felt Sephiroth kick him in the shoulder as hard as he could. Cloud's eyes shut tight as he grinded his teeth together. He could feel the bones shattering in his shoulder and upper arm and he could feel the warm, crimson liquid pour from the wound. "That will teach you to attack your mentor." Sephiroth growled, kicking Cloud again, but this time it merely threw him into the durt.

Cloud opened his eyes slightly before closing them again, gasping for air. He wondered how long Sephiroth planned to torture him like this…""And Strife, I'm going to leave you like this until morning. Then I'll heal you and then we can continue our training. That Mako should help your face and the bullet wound-but not the shoulder wound. " With that said, Sephiroth left.

Cloud lay in the dirt, half concious. The pain was killing him. he never would have guessed that Sephiroth could do that with just one kick…well what should he have expected from a superSOLDIER? Cloud groaned, rolling over and trying to keep the weight off of the shattered shoulder. He hissed at the pain as he moved his left arm and touched the wound with his fingers. He flinched as he felt sharp shards of bone sticking out of his skin. Was Sephiroth really able to heal that? He wasn't really sure…

Suddenly Cloud heard someone walking towards him-no wait, three people walking towards him. He opened his eyes and in the dim light of the fire, he could see a pair of metal boots, black boots, and a pair of shoes with a lot of shoe strings. Cloud wanted to speak, but found that he could not without losing his breath.

Then Cloud noticed something looking at him. He blinked, his Mako green eyes flashing as he realized that it was the same wolf that had stolen his food. "What on earth happened to you, young man?" an unfamiliar voice qyestioned, bending down over Cloud.

Cloud found himself staring into the face of a man who was dressed like Van Helsing. "Who the hell are you?" Cloud managed, trying to sit up, but found that he could not.

"I'm Grimiore Valentine, but that's not important right now. Vincent, Yuffie, um…Wolf er…Zack, how are we supposed to get him out of here?"

Cloud was about to say something, when all at once, his vision flashed green and everything went dark for a moment.

&&&

Aeris paced in worry, wondering when Zack and Vincent would return. Everyone was furious that Yuffie had gone with them, but now they were all anxious for their return. Meanwhile Professor Gast was looking at Red with sudden interest and was talking to him anxiously.

"_**Child…my connection is weak…"**_

Aeris's head snapped up in shock. Without realizing it, she yelled, "Gaia? Are you there?"

Everyone turned to look at the young Cetra with surprise. Gast's eyes were glinting with amusement as he watched his daughter.

"_**They're coming back to you, Cetra Aeris…but you must find a way back to me…in Centra…"**_

Just as Aeris was about to ask when Centra was, she heard a loud cry and spun around to see Vincent, an unknown man, Yuffie, and Cloud. Cloud's eyes were shut and he appeared to be in great pain. Aeris's eyes found the blood on Cloud's shoulder and hurried forward with Tifa and everyone else. Aeris stared at Cloud's face with horror written all over her features. Cloud's face was covered in blood and one side of it was black and blue. His shoulder was torn badly and she could se shards of bone jutting out of it. Aeris nearly threw up as she stood there in horror.

&&&

Cloud could feel someone wrap their arms around him, but he could not open his eyes to see who it was. The pain he was feeling now was nothing compared to before and even worse than when Sephiroth had stabbed him through the chest twice back in Nimbelheim.

"Rinoa! Heal Cloud!" a voice full of worry filled his ears. It sounded so familiar, but Cloud couldn't think og the woman's name at the moment. Within a minutes, Cloud found a painless security within the back of his mind as he blacked out from pain.

&&&

Reno was shaking as "Frisky" approached him. "Hey! Why you stop your singing?" Tseng demanded in a slurred and drunk voice, his eyes glazed and his face red from drinking way to heavy.

"Cause I don went and peed in me pants!" Reno snapped, acting as if he were drunk.

"Sic him boy!" Hojo yelled.

"Uh-oh…"

&&&

It had taken a long time for Cloud to wake up, and several Curagas to heal him. but when he did awake, he looked around him and immediately spotted Aeris, Rinoa, Zack, Barret, Red, Vincent, Grimiore, someone, Squall, Ivrine, Yuffie, Zell, and Selphie all asleep. He also found that he was on the couch and that he felt no pain what-so-ever. He turned to look at his shoulder and found nothing. He reached up to his face-nothing. Someone had healed him, though he didn't know who.

Cloud shuttered as he remembered the events of yesterday. He closed his eyes, unaware of the sleeping figure next to him. Sephiroth's harsh and cruel words ran through his mind and he sat there. Somehow, he had escaped Sephiroth, though he could not recall how he had done it…Hopefully, Sephiroth would not find him again, but Cloud knew his hope was in vain.

Suddenly he felt something lean against him. His eyes snapped open, looking down to see a black haired woman leaning on his shoulder, her arms wrapped around his waist. Who was this woman? Why couldn't he remember? He blinked, looking closer at the woman. A name flashed in his mind, "Tifa…" he breathed. How could she be here if she were dead? Unless… "Tifa?" he asked again.

This time Tifa's eyes fluttered open and she looked around, seeming confused. Cloud couldn't help but grin as she blushed when she realized that she had her arms around him. She moved away from him, looking down, "Um…sorry…" she muttered, "for everything."

"Why are you saying sorry?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"For-For hurting you, Cloud…"

"How? You never hurt me…"

"You kissed me and for that…Sephiroth shot you and then he did all that other stuff…" Tifa whispered

"No, I kissed you so I was asking for it. Then because I-" Cloud was cut off by a loud, "YOU WHAT!" It was Barret-who had been listening to them because he had just woke up.

"You kissed Tifa! Why I oughta you spiky assed foo'!" Tifa and Cloud turned to a very angry Barret. "I'm gonna kill you, Strife!" Barret roared.

"What is the meaning of this?" Grimiore demanded.

"Why dat Spiky assed foo' done went and kissed Tifa!" Barret fumed.

"Aw! Is somebody jealous?" Yuffie couldn't help but ask and try her best to annoy Barret. That was fun-and tease him-she of course, knew that Barret didn't love Tifa like Cloud did-he just felt rather protective of her.

"So? What's the problem?" Zack asked, sitting up and looking at Barret with a old blue gaze. Meanwhile Tifa was blushing furiously because of Barret's shoutings and waking everyone. Poor her…

"Aw, I think that's sweet!" Aeris replied suddenly, looking from Cloud to Tifa.

"So when did you kiss her?" Selphie asked, poking her head in front of Cloud's, a grin plastered on her childish face.

"OH! For how long, hmm, Cloud?" Yuffie asked, looking at Cloud closely. She looked as if she would die laughing at any minute.

"Was there tongue?" Rinoa asked, staring at the two.

Tifa was redder than an apple now. She had buried her head into Cloud's shoulder yelling, "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

"Come on, Tifa-Cloud-tell us!" Aeris begged, her emerald eyes glowing. Poor Tifa…all the girls were surrounding Cloud and Tifa. And Cloud was also red, but he remained silent, staring at a wall trying to act as if no one were there.

"Please?" Rinoa asked, her brown eyes looking at Cloud, but Cloud acted as if he had not heard her.

"It's none of your business," Zack muttered, glaring at the girls.

They all turned their attention to him, wide grins plastered on their faces. Zack gulped…maybe he should have just remained silent… "Have _you_ ever kissed Aeris?"

Zack's eyes widened. Aeris blushed and to everyone's surprise, Zack nodded. "How long?" Yuffie demanded at once.

Zack blinked, his face reddening. He, unlike Cloud and Tifa, answered them, "Five minutes,"

"Whoa…" Rinoa breathed, staring at him.

"Where at?" Selphie pried.

"You don't want to know," was Zack's response. Both him and Aeris were turning very red at that question.

"Sure we do!" Rinoa yelled.

"Um…" Aeris replied, "Um…um…um…um…oh I can't say it! Zack you tell them!"

Zack blushed. He did not want to tell them-especially the girls, but finally-after a few moments, he breathed in and then replied very quietly, "In the shower…"

"Ahhh!" everyone screamed, including everyone that had been trying to ignore them. Well, Vincent didn't scream, instead he was glaring at Professor Gast and Grimiore was messing with his crossbow. Grimiore looked up and then reflected on the Aeris's and Zack's age and then looked back down at his crossbow, ignoring them silently. Professor Gast had his mouth open and had walked up to Aeris with a stern look in his eyes, but before he could say anything about it-

"Y-You what?" Tifa gasped, unable to stop staring at Zack. Cloud had also looked up and was staring at Zack and Aeris with horror. "And how old were you?" Tifa demanded.

Zack turned redder as he responded, "We were…sixteen,"

"Oh my gosh! Zack! Aeris! You were _too young_ to be doing that!" Professor Gast suddenly yelled, his face turning chalk white as he looked at his daughter. "Aeris! H-How could you?"

"We didn't do anything-honest!" Zack yelled in his and Aeris's defense.

Aeris was now covering her face from embarrassment-and she was clinging to Zack trying to hide from everyone-especially her father. Even Vincent was staring at them as he spoke with his dark voice, "You were sixteen…?" If he had done that when _he_ was sixteen-he'd never live to see another day-which, might have been a good thing now that he thought of it.

Tifa couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You guys…were sixteen? And you were in the shower! Cloud was only in the washroom when he found me and we're twenty-two and twenty-three!"

Everyone turned at Tifa's comment. "Was he n-"

"NO!" Tifa and Cloud suddenly screamed.

"I was not! I was just washing my shirt off! Yuffie-you are WAY too young to be listening to this-get the hell out!" Cloud yelled. Yuffie shrunk back, but she did not leave as a wide grin grew on her face.

"And I had a towel on!" Zack growled, glaring at them.

All four were blushing and the two guys were angry as hell. "Then why were you in the shower?" Gast countered suspiciously, glaring at Zack and then

"Just shut up, please!" Cloud suddenly yelled, his voice dripping with fury. He was glaring at all of them-except Vincent and Grimiore because they had done nothing but pretend no one was in the room. Okay, so Vincent was glaring at Gast with utter rage-but what else was new? Okay, back to Cloud! Cloud's eyes were dark green hue. He clenched his fists together. None of this was any of their business. Sure, they had both kissed the women they loved-sure Zack was sixteen-but that _was_ the last time Aeris had seen Zack. So what was the big deal?

He walked to a wall and leaned against it, daring anyone to say something. It seemed to Cloud, that all his fury he had felt yesterday, was pouring into the room, hushing everyone. His green eyes stared at each and everyone of them, flashing an even deeper green before he closed them and sighed. Too much-just too much for him. For over six hours he had believed Tifa was dead-and then Sephiroth goes and tells him that he burned her body. As he recollected the memories, his whole body tensed with fury. If Yuffie or any one else piped up about him and Tifa or Zack and Aeris, they would pay.

"So you're Vincent's father…how come you're dressed like Van Helsing?' a voice suddenly asked. Cloud opened one eye and noticed that Yuffie was looking at Grimiore with confusion.

"I don't know, like I told Vincent-one minute, I was enjoying the Lifestream-the next I was on the creepy island. Then this kid appeared and called me Van Helsing and asked for an autograph. Then he started screaming for Sephiroth, a Strife person, and his brothers to come and save him because he thought I was going to kill him when I told him I was Grimiore Valentine. Then he mentioned Genisis-the stupid boy, Genisis wouldn't help someone like him. It was really funny to watch him though," Cloud sighed-Kadaj really was a stupid childish remnant of Sephiroth…

Finally Cloud decided to speak up as Yuffie and Grimiore rambled on about Yuffie's nickname for Vincent-"Vampire". Cloud noticed that every time Yuffie said "Vampire" or "Vinnie", Vincent would turned his crimson gaze on her, fire in his eyes, but he would say nothing. And then Yuffie would correct herself. Cloud also noticed that Ivrine was glaring at Vincent with anger. Cloud almost laughed. Ivrine was jealous of all the attention Vincent was getting. But he still remained silent, until he couldn't take the gibber-gabber anymore. "I'm hungry, Squall, where's a place I can eat at?"

&&&

Sephiroth looked at where Cloud was supposed to have been. There was only a dry pool of blood there with foot prints all around it. He glared, his Mako green eyes narrowed with rage. He could tell just by looking at the foot prints who had been here-except for one pair. One had been that annoying materia thief, the other had been Vincent, and from Kadaj's ramblings the other had to have been Grimiore's. Then there were wolf prints-they weren't big enough to be Red XIII's though.

"Kadaj! Yazoo! Get up! We're going on a puppet hunt!" he yelled, awakening his other two remnants. He could easily track done Strife and be there within a matter of minutes…It wouldn't take long.

&&&

Reno jumped right out of a window-with rabid Denzel following him at inhuman speed. Lucky for Reno-he was running quicker than Denzel, his eyes bludging out of his head. To everyone's-they were drunk-shock, Reno ran right across the ocean and into Esthar.

"Hey! Now we can have a real party!" Rufus grin a drunkard's grin as he gulped down another whiskey. "Come on! Bring in the popcorn!"

Tseng and Elena looked at him, their eyes glazed over and their speak so slurred they could barley be understood, "Why do ya wan' ta bring in da popcorn?"

"Cause we're gonna watch a movie! Dat's why!" Rufus snapped, clapping his hands together. Two waiters came in-looking very freaked out as they handed Rufus his gaint bowl of popcorn.

"Well, I dunno about you two, but I'm going to finish my movie," Hojo stated. He didn't sound very drunk at all-in fact, he didn't look it although he had a ton of glasses of whiskey next to him. Maybe it was because with the JENOVA cells he had once injected into himself were making him act sane-well in the terms of Hojo being sane…okay, let's face it-HOJO IS NOT EVER SANE! Drunk or not!

&&&

When Cloud had finished eating, he felt rather tired. He yawned and stood up, "Squall, where can I stay at for the night-er morning?"

"Go down this hallway and take a right," Squall responded, pointing to a hallway on Cloud'' left. Cloud nodded, thanking Squall and then left. After he had eaten, his anger had melted away and now he was just tired. He found that there was only one room on the hallway that he came to when he turned right. That must be it. He opened the door and found that the room was made for guests. 'Must not have very many guests…' Cloud thought, yawning.

He removed the buster sword from his shoulders, glad to have the weight off of him. And then he took off his bloodied shirt. He needed some new clothes…Cloud laid down on the bed and shut his eyes, trying to sleep.

&&&

A few hours later, Cloud woke up to find that Tifa was laying right next to him, her arm wrapped around his rib cage. Her head was resting on his shoulder. Cloud blinked, his eyes widening. He tried to get away from Tifa, but if he struggled, her grip tightened around him. Uh-oh. He looked around, trying to find a way to escape. Suddenly the door opened and Yuffie, Selphie, and Rinoa poked their heads in. "Help me," Cloud begged quietly, looking at them with pleading eyes.

The girls only grinned evilly at him as they took out cameras…oh they were going to pay for that…Cloud glared at them as Tifa shifted against him, burying her head into his chest. He glanced down at her and the fire in his eye sgrew as he heard quiet giggles coming from the three girls in the doorway. His Mako green eyes flashed. Yuffie was the first to notice the change in them. They turned a silver-bluish hue and then turned to a dark green, horrible green color.

'_**Heh-heh, looks like I found my puppet.'**_

Cloud's sudden fury suddenly vanished at the sound of Sephiroth's harsh laugh echoed through his mind. Fear flooded through him as he looked away from the three girls and down at his arm that had the Geostigma on it. He flinched as pain seared through his arm for an instant, turning his vision blue, his eye pupils narrowed until they were strange, looking like Sephiroth's. And then the pain vanished and his eye pupils turned back to normal. But as the pain faded, anger mixed with the fear.

"Get the hell out of here," his voice was dark and cold as he fixed his gaze on the three girls. All three of them blinked and then they left, closing the door.

Unknown to Cloud, there was a video camera sitting on the dresser, recording everything.

"Cloud?" a voice asked. Cloud looked down and saw Tifa looking at him. She suddenly blushed as she realized that she was holding onto Cloud. She moved away, blinking, "Sorry, what's wrong?"


End file.
